‘Nigeria Needs Foreign Help To Tackle Tax Evasion’

The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) says the nation’s large scale tax evasion and illicit financial transactions would be best tackled with international cooperation.
The CITN President, Mr Mac-Tony Dike made the suggestions at a news briefing held last Wednesday in Lagos.
He said that the challenging situation made it imperative for tax stakeholders to brainstorm on ways to fashion out national and international cooperation toward tackling tax evasion and illicit financial flows.
The Tide source reports that the stakeholders have agreed to brainstorm on the issue during their annual tax conference scheduled for between May 13 and 16 in Abuja.
The conference has “Inclusive Economic Growth and Sustainable Developments: Fiscal Imperatives, Prospects and Challenges,” as its theme.
According to him, economic development needs viable tax and funds management foundation.
“Economists are not unaware that economic growth and development are not synonymous, inequality is a barrier to growth.
“While economic growth is quantitative measured by increase in a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), economic development is qualitative, measured by increase in per capita income,” he said.
Dike also said that universal access to education, health services, access to financial services, new technologies, affordable mortgage facilities access to bank loans followed equal distribution of resources supported by economic development.
“Equally a stable and predictable operating environment, good governance and tackling of corruption at all levels are some of the major perquisites for private investment,” he said.
Dike also said tax experts during the conference would focus more on how to translate economic development through inclusive growth.
He said that the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala would deliver a paper on the theme of the conference.
Other topics include, tax education as a veritable tool for tax enforcement, fiscal incentives and foreign direct investments and contentious issues in company income tax and personal income tax acts among others.