The Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, says the numerous taxes charged across all levels of government are creating problems for Nigerians.

Oyedele stated this during an interview on Channels TV Sunrise Daily on Wednesday.

“We do not understand why we have so many taxes in Nigeria, just creating problems for everyone.”

“We want to go into the constitution itself and address the problem from the roots. Let’s put it there and let it be clear. Clearly define the taxing rights at the different levels of government—this should be what you can collect—from local government to state to federal, and here are your responsibilities.

He also stated that there should be an agreement to suspend the taxes.

“While we cannot solve some of these issues in 30 or 60 days, we are already discussing them with the sub-nationals. It was the last meeting of the NEC, and the governors were excited about the recommendations.

“One of them is that we can agree that we are suspending those taxes. For instance, bicycle tax, wheelbarrow tax, and haulage tax.

“When we look at the data, we are making about 98 percent of our revenue across all levels of government combined from less than 10 taxes. Why have others? It just creates problems for everyone and funds criminals, in my view.

“What Nigerians should expect, especially if you are a small business owner, is a lot of review; some of these taxes should go away, but we also want to look at the impediments beyond taxes, including overregulation.”

– Subsidy removal and FX rates –

Oyedele also stated that he advised governors of different states in the country to utilise additional revenue from subsidy removal and harmonisation of FX rates.

He said, “We have developed a framework for how they should spend the money. Don’t go and build flyovers or say you want to go to the moon. That’s not our priority. We have seen that our people are in multidimensional poverty because of a lack of access to health, education, safe drinking water, and good security—the basics.

“Why don’t you do road from farm to market so they stop losing 60 percent of the tomatoes they’ve worked hard to produce? Can we do solar-powered storage, can we do vocational centres?”