I’ll raise Nigeria’s budget to N20 trillion if elected – Fasua

A Presidential aspirant of the Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) in the 2019 general elections, Tope Fasua, says he would raise Nigeria’s budget to N20 trillion if elected into office.

The N20 trillion budget is about N11 trillion higher than the 2018 Budget as approved by the National Assembly.
Fasua, who doubles as the National Chairman of ANRP, made the disclosure on Tuesday while featuring in an interactive session with the Ripples Nigeria team in Lagos on his presidential ambition.

The session is part of the series of engagements for presidential aspirants ahead of the 2019 general elections.

The nation, which is the most populous country in Africa, currently runs a low budget when compared with other countries in the continent having smaller populations, according to Fasua.

The Presidential aspirant hinted that he would fund the N20 trillion budget by generating revenue worth N12 trillion from Value Added Tax (VAT), import duty and capital gain tax at N4 trillion each, while N2 trillion and N5 trillion would be generated from excise duty and other taxes respectively.

When his opinion was sought on the implication of the tax raise, he said it was important to increase our tax revenue to grow infrastructure.

“The essence of excise duty is that a public good that causes harm to the people… if cigarette causes cancer, you must tax the people to have money to build hospital to take care of cancer.

Read also: Nigeria’s debt rises to N22.38tn –DMO

“Tax compliance is so low, what you need to do is build trust, if people trust you they will pay you,” he said.

He described the 20 percent income tax in the country as , noting that his administration would leverage tax raise for the development of the nation.

Last month, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) had announced that it realised N2.52 trillion from various taxes from January to June 2018, the amount is about 42 percent increase when compared to the N1.7 trillion total tax revenue realised in the corresponding period in 2017.

Last week, the World Bank urged Nigeria to lift its internally generated revenue by raising non-oil income, particularly income from VAT, excises and customs, and states’ internally generated revenues

The global lender had said that could be achieved by strengthening tax administration and increasing compliance rates, it had also suggested rationalizing tax incentives, exemptions and selectively increasing rates such as excise on alcohol and tobacco.

 

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