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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Economy & Trade

Tax reform has reduced burden on low-income earners — Revenue board

From The Punch · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Nigeria’s Joint Revenue Board says tax reforms have reduced the burden on low-income earners and microbusinesses while removing multiple nuisance taxes.
  • The board says 18 state Houses of Assembly have adopted a model law that cuts more than 50 collection items to nine categories.
  • Officials say the reforms also ended cash collection and roadside revenue checkpoints, while work continues to improve tax administration.

Nigeria’s Joint Revenue Board says a year of tax reform has brought relief to low-income earners and micro-scale businesses, rejecting concerns that the changes increased their tax burden.

JRB Executive Secretary Olusegun Adesokan presented the assessment at the board’s 160th meeting in Kaduna State. He said 18 state Houses of Assembly had adopted a model harmonised taxes and levies law intended to reduce overlapping charges across states and local government areas.

The law reduced more than 50 collection items to nine sub-heads, according to Adesokan. It also abolished cash collection and the use of roadblocks to collect revenue. The board said the measures had advanced the harmonisation of taxes and levies among subnational governments.

Addressing the misconception that the tax reform has increased taxes, the reform has rather reduced the tax burden on low-income earners, eliminated multiple nuisance taxes while providing reliefs for low-income earners and micro-scale businesses.

· Olusegun Adesokan, Executive Secretary of the Joint Revenue BoardAdesokan described the reform’s reported effect on lower-income taxpayers and small businesses.

Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani, who opened the meeting, said the reforms had expanded opportunities for domestic resource mobilisation and strengthened Nigeria’s ability to finance development. He urged the board to address obstacles to collection, institutional weaknesses that create friction with taxpayers, and opportunities to use technology more effectively.

Sani said the reform should aim beyond collecting revenue. “The objective of the reform should not be simply to collect revenue; it should be to build a tax system in which compliance becomes easier, enforcement becomes more intelligent and voluntary compliance becomes a norm.” The meeting was convened to assess progress under the new revenue regime, identify gaps and address emerging challenges.

The objective of the reform should not be simply to collect revenue; it should be to build a tax system in which compliance becomes easier, enforcement becomes more intelligent and voluntary compliance becomes a norm.

· Uba Sani, Kaduna State governorSani outlined the broader administrative goal he said the reform should pursue.
About this summary

Originally published by The Punch. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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