Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has said he would cut down corporate tax if elected as President.
This, he explained, would attract the much needed foreign direct investment into Nigeria and increase her Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Atiku spoke on Wednesday in response to a question by Kadaria Ahmed, who had moderated The Candidates, a political forum hosted by the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) and sponsored by the McArthur Foundation.
The moderator had asked the former Vice President to explain his proposal to reduce corporate tax as contained in his policy document.
In his response, Atiku said: “The rationale behind that is that when you reduce corporate tax, you give incentive to investors to come in and invest. And when they invest they create jobs. And when those jobs are created, the people who get employment also pay taxes. So, in all cases where you reduce corporate taxes, you have seen the GDP going up”.
He also pointed out that cutting down corporate taxes alone is not enough to increase FDIs, adding that his administration would carry out a holistic approach by providing the necessary power infrasructure and creating an enabling atmosphere for businesses to thrive.
Atiku lamented that the APC-led government has ‘completely eliminated’ the middle class, a situation, he attributed for the widening gap between the rich and the poor.
Using Turkey as a case study, the PDP chieftain also said he would consider granting amnesty to corrupt persons willing to surrender their loot and plough same into the economy.
He buttressed his argument by pointing out a similar programme when he was Vice President between 1999 and 2007.
He said: “Personally, I have considered it. Yes, it will be problematic but what have they been able to achieve? Let me tell you what we achieved when came into office to fight corruption: there was a recovery panel set up by (former) President Obasanjo under my chairmanship with then the Attorney General and the National Security Adviser. And by calling various people who had been alleged to have stolen money, we recovered over $4 billion paid back into the treasury. If you were to go and prosecute these people, up till now, you would still be prosecuting them and that money would have been denied.
“It all depends on what you intend to achieve whether it is moral rectitude or you want to see a fast development of your country from proceeds of corruption”.
On his part, the party’s Vice Presidential Candidate and former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, assured that their administration would pursue a private sector driven economy.
“If you talk about the issue of tax and lowering (corporate) tax, look at all the places where there have seen fast developments. Let’s take Dubai for instance. It was a desert when they told everybody ‘no tax’. The world came there. So, when you lower tax, the world will come in,” he stated.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
