FG promises unveiling of new tax reforms

Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has revealed plans by the Federal Government plans to introduce new tax reforms to boost domestic resource mobilisation.

Edun said this on Tuesday while attending the World Bank Group/International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meetings in Marrakech, Morocco.

He said the G-24 meeting which he took part in discussed how the World Bank Group/IMF could be restructured to provide more assistance to developing economies.

He said the current administration aims to improve the efficiency of collecting taxes, fees, and payments owed to the government.

Edun also added that as global interest rates increase, countries, including Nigeria, need to focus more on mobilising resources locally.

“Essentially, the conversation was that the global financial architecture needs to be reformed for the 21st,” the minister said.

“Basically, what they (World Bank Group/IMF) have at the moment is not meeting the expectations and requirements of developing countries such as Nigeria.

“There is not enough concessionary financing; interest rates are going up even within multilateral institutions, such that interest rates are so high around the world that the issue of debt is very high on the agenda.

“And of course, there is a financing gap, there is not enough funding to fund the developing requirements of the poorer countries, and that is what the conversation is all about — the need for reforms, change, and improvements.

“Again for Nigeria, something that the government of President Bola Tinubu has been emphasising also came to the fore here — and that is domestic resource mobilisation — the fact that we have depended on our savings, and resources to a larger extent,” the minister added.

“We must be efficient in collecting taxes, fees, and payments that are due, we must be efficient and cost-effective with our expenditure.

“We must create a bigger base of financing from our resources, we must rely on ourselves, we must pull ourselves up much more than relying on others. That was an important message that came out.”