By Peter Egwuatu
Chairman, BGL Plc and former Minister of Finance, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu has said that Nigerians would be favourably disposed to paying taxes if the revenues accruable from such taxes are judiciously utilised for socio-economic infrastructure development of the various parts of the country.

‘’In our nation, we have seen mounting evidence, particularly over the past forty years; of the failure of Federal; State and Local Governments to productively utilise public revenues to the optimal benefit of the citizens by providing basic needs such as clean air, potable water, sensitisation, education and health’’, he lamented.

Speaking on ‘’Taxation Without Representation’’ at the 6th AELEX (Legal practitioners and Arbitrators) Lecture in Lagos on Friday, Dr Kalu Idika Kalu, lamented the failure of the ruling class to provide a conducive business environment through a proper structure of laws and a legal system of sanctions and free recourse to judicial process without intimidation.

Rather, through rampant and pernicious use of the political power to tax, he noted with dismay that levies, taxes, tariffs and all manner of deductions are constantly imposed by unrepresentative legislative systems throughout the country at all levels of government.

The only remedy to the catalogue of multiple incidences of taxation without commensurate representation, according to Kalu, can be encapsulated in the concept of improved governance.

“Good governance, has to do with just, equitable, consultative and responsive governance in the public sector as well as in the corporate private sectors.

With responsive and responsible governance, he noted that social services will be provided to those being governed in the form of adequate security, access to affordable education, health, as well as a social safety net for the aged, the handicapped, the sick and the dependent members of the community.

He added that there is a cry for the redress of long lingering absence of representation stemming from a lack of openness in the political process and the endemic and ever deepening corruption in the polity.

‘’The unequal sharing of the total public revenues, both those derived from the proceeds of common assets, and revenues raised from public taxation, all show the unequal access that contributes to widening income disparities’’, he said, stressing that the extensive incidence of tax avoidance and widespread tax evasion with impunity by those who also have favoured access to the nation’s common treasury and other assets, engendered social anomie and social tension.

Speaking in the same vein, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, (SEC) Senator Udoma Udo Udoma noted that Nigerians tend to resent tax because tax is being used by people that are not representing them in government. He went down the memory lane on how his Grandmother was killed in 1929 by the British colonial masters when she led a protest against an unrepresentative tax regime.

He however, said the legislative arm of government must be truly representative of the people, adding that ‘’people don’t resent taxes when they know that the people collecting the taxes are people genuinely elected by them’’.