. Urges Nigerians to pay taxes to boost government revenue
The Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Muhammed Shehu, says that political officeholders in Nigeria do not earn as much as their workers in some federal government agencies.
In an interview with journalists on Sunday in Abuja, Mr Shehu said the report that political officeholders earned outrageous emoluments was not true.
Nigerians recently condemned reports on a proposed 114 per cent increase in salaries of political officeholders by the Commission, amid biting economic hardships in the country.
Mr Shehu described information about the salary increase as not true.
He, however, said that it was the constitutional responsibility of RMAFC to determine and review the salaries of executive, legislative, and judicial officers.
He said that their salaries were last reviewed in 2007.
“From 2008 till date, there has not been a single review.
“Last year, some individuals took the Federal Government to court. These were some activists concerned about the salaries of judicial officers.
“In the court, the judge ruled that a judge should be paid about N10 million a month; that was the court ruling,” he said.
He said that the Commission would not contemplate the speculated increase now, considering the prevailing economic challenges faced by Nigerians.
“We are Nigerians; we are not going to start talking about reviewing the salaries of political officeholders now because of the challenges that the government is facing.
“As a Commission, we are going to do our work, but we are not going to say we will do it now.
“We will do it when the climate is right, and then we will take it forward to the stakeholders for them to decide on what to do.
“I want to disabuse the minds of Nigerians. It is not true that people are getting jumbo salaries.
“The monthly salary of Mr President is less than N1.5 million; that of a minister is not even up to one million naira.
“I know of an average CBN worker who is not even a director, who earns more than a minister.
“People in the NNPC, NCC, and Ports Authority earn huge salaries. What is the salary of a governor? What is the salary of a legislator?”
The Chairman said that what people considered outrageous earnings by lawmakers were statutory office running costs, which should ordinarily be managed centrally by the National Assembly Service Commission.
“I know some people will say members of the National Assembly get up to N10 million or N11 million monthly.
“Those are not salaries; they are the operating costs of running their offices, which in other societies, the legislator does not have to see because there is a structure.
“Once you get elected, you make that structure from your constituency office to computers to logistics to the size of your constituency.
Mr Shehu said: “Wherever you have a constituency office, the workers you hire, it is the National Assembly Service Commission that is supposed to take care of that.
“But the Nigerian system allows the legislator to be given a certain amount, and then he deals with that and retires the receipts,” the RMAFC chief added.
All the things that people like to tell you about clean environment, good roads, functional infrastructure in other countries, it is the taxes that citizens pay that are utilised for those services.
Pay your tax
Meanwhile, the Commission (RMAFC), has urged Nigerians to endeavour to pay their taxes to boost government’s revenue and improve service delivery.
Mr Shehu said that less than 40 million Nigerians are presently captured in the tax net and paying taxes.
“That is too low for a country that has more than 200 million population,” he said.
He commended the idea of a tax reform committee recently set up by President Bola Tinubu, saying the committee would do a lot to include economic players from the informal sector in the tax net.
“There is all this debate about the informal economy.
“What this tax reform committee that we have set up will do is bring a lot of agencies together, including RMAFC. We are a member of that committee.
“We have articulated our position and we will communicate what we believe can add value to the discussion.
“At the end of it all, we will have a better society where more people are paying taxes and the money will be utilised for better services and infrastructure so that every Nigerian can benefit,” he said.
He urged the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), to collaborate with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), to identify certain categories of Nigerians who evade taxes.
“There are some taxes that the government is not getting from Nigerians.
“Somebody will declare an income of N600,000 in a year but that same person will import a vehicle of N40 million into Nigeria.
“I believe the FIRS will look at all those things, and then collaborate with the NCS for better efficiency.
“If you import a brand-new car, your name, your date of birth, your address, your NIN number should all be required.
“They should place a search and see what it is that you filed last year, how much taxes you paid to the government. Thereby, they will get a lot more people to pay taxes,” he said.
He urged all Nigerians to embrace the idea of willingly paying their taxes so as to boost the government’s revenue drive.
“I think it is very important for every Nigerian to try and pay their taxes because it is from those monies you get services.
“All the things that people like to tell you about clean environment, good roads, functional infrastructure in other countries, it is the taxes that citizens pay that are utilised for those services.
“People should learn to pay electricity bills, they should pay their water bills, they should pay just like you pay for telephone recharge cards.
“The more you pay your taxes, the more money the government has to put into road, rail construction, better hospitals, pension, social security, and better plans to help the needy,” he said.
