This article was first published in the journal “This Day”.
The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) and the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), yesterday lamented Nigeria’s tax expenditure policy and noted the development was capable of crippling the nation’s economy.
The Director General of NILDS, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman and the Executive Secretary of CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Musa, made the submission at a two-day sensitisation and capacity-building workshop for National Assembly members in Abuja. The workshop jointly organised by NILDS and CISLAC, was titled, “Identifying and strengthening legislative pathways for reforming tax expenditure governance in Nigeria.”
The House of Representatives is currently probing a N14 trillion revenue which the country lost to tax incentives, waiver abuses by public institutions and companies. The CISLAC boss said the Global Tax Expenditure Database 2020 report indicated that Nigeria had a tax expenditure of N5.84 trillion (3.8% of its GDP) which was just over 50 per cent of its 2020 budget.