President Bola Tinubu has directed the implementation of all recommendations by the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reform Committee across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government.
This directive followed the submission of the committee’s report on ‘quick-win’ achievements by its chairman, Taiwo Oyedele, at the State House in Abuja.
He said the committee had fulfilled the first part of the presidential mandate given to the committee and will now commence work on the second phase, which is on critical fiscal reforms, adding that the reforms will entail legislative and constitutional amendments that will reduce the over 200 official and unofficial taxes collected from Nigerians across the different federating units, to below 10.
According to him, the directive to escalate the recommendations across government’s institutions is to ensure there is effective synergy and assimilation when it comes to their implementation.
He further disclosed that the President promised to make the presentation of the recommendations a priority item when the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meets again on Monday.
“After listening to a presentation by the committee chairman, the President directed the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala Usman, to liaise with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Chairman of the Tax Policy Review Committee to ensure that the recommendations of the committee are swiftly and immediately implemented across all ministries, departments, and agencies of the federal government to ensure that there is effective synergy and to ensure that every institution of the federal government is on the same page with respect to how tax policy will be implemented.
“Henceforth, His Excellency Mr. President has also made available an opportunity for the recommendations of the tax policy review committee to be made a top most priority at the next sitting of the Federal Executive Council meeting on Monday. Mr. President will continue to emphasise the importance of ensuring that our tax authorities are not taxing the seed, but are taxing the fruit and that will continue to be the focus”, he said.
