Nigeria plans a 35 percent increase in its tax base to 17 million, up from the current 14 million payers as government gets desperate to expand income sources to fund the 2017 N7.44 trillion record budget.
Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance announced that government will recruit some 7,500 young graduates of between 18 and 35 years whose job will be to raise awareness and educate citizens at all levels on the country’s tax system and encourage voluntarily payment.
Adeosun said the young graduates who will be know as Community Tax Liaison Officers (CTLOs) are basically expected to “Increase tax awareness to raise compliance; educate all citizens on the tax system; tax outreach to increase the number of tax payers; as well as enroll new tax payers.
They will be recruited under the federal government’s N-Power Programme which targets to help reduce unemployment, create jobs and engage the youths.
“We set ourselves a target of 35 percent increase in the number of tax payers. That will take us to about 17million from the current level,” Adeosun told a press conference in Abuja.
“We think it is achievable,” she said, confirming that the new initiative is really part of a major outreach in terms of tax enrollment.
With a tax to GDP ratio of only 6 percent, one of the lowest in the world and 14 Million tax payers out of 69.6 Million economically active people (20%), Adeosun said there is a lot of work to be done in creating awareness and bringing people into the tax system.
The new tax recruits will be offered a two (2) year fixed term contract with performance based incentives as well as the opportunity to be sponsored to pursue professional tax examinations if they qualify.
The minister, however, explained that the young graduates are not tax collectors but will be deployed Nationwide and in public places, including the Markets, Schools, Churches, Mosques, Airports, to educate people on tax.
“They are going into churches and mosques to explain the tax system, to our citizens, so their job is to educate.
“They are not collectors, they are not accessing people for tax and they are not computing tax,” she noted at the press meeting also attended by Babatunde Fowler, Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and some other government officials.
In terms of salary, she said the recruits will be paid the N-Power basic salary of N30,000 standard, but that the state government have worked out an incentive scheme for this particular initiative which will also help them increase enrollment and get tax payers active.
