Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), gave this advice to the government as he spoke via teleconference with selected journalists.
He said that if the government does it, it will be easier to generate more revenue nationally to finance the nation’s development.
Gates said that if the government acquires credibility with citizens, it will not be difficult for them (citizens) to pay taxes, adding that Nigeria still has some of the smallest proportions of taxes on GDP anywhere in the world.
“One challenge that Nigeria has is that the amount of money that the government raises domestically is quite small compared to other countries.
“A lot of countries at that level will be raising closer to 15 percent of GDP and Nigeria is one of the lowest in the world down at about 6 percent. And so, it is a huge challenge that when you want to fund infrastructure, health, education, all those things, that over time the tax collection, the domestic resources are going to have to go up quite a bit.
“That’s a long-term effort and I think partly by making sure the current resources are spent well like on primary health care, you gain the credibility that the citizens will say, okay, we want more of these things.
“If we don’t raise the quality, you can get into a trap where they don’t feel like paying the taxes actually has that much impact, and so they’re not supportive of that.”
Meanwhile, Naija News reports the federal government recently disclosed plans to increase Value Added Tax (VAT) from its current 5% to 7.5% as from the year 2020.
The proposal is however subject to approval by the country’s lawmakers.