The Chairman, Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Tayo Oyedele, says if the current tax regime and other reforms being carried out by the present administration were undertaken ten years ago, Nigeria would have attained a $1 trillion economy.
He spoke in Lagos on Monday while delivering a keynote address at the PwC's "Executive Summit on Nigeria's Tax Reform."
The summit has "The New Tax Era: What Nigeria's Tax Reform Means to Individuals and Businesses," as its theme.
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Oyedele said before the current reforms Nigeria's economy was on the road of becoming the likes of Zimbabwe and Venezuela.
According to him, Nigeria before May 2023 had problems with the exchange rate management, maintaining that if the Federal Government had sustained fuel subsidy payment, Nigerians with N10,000 could have found it difficult to buy litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and the system could have collapsed.
"If some of these reforms were done in the past two years, I tell you authoritatively that Nigeria's $1 trillion economy is guaranteed and the price of PMS will be under N300 per litre because the foreign rate will be under N300 against the dollar.
"We've done this analysis over the last 10 years, comparable balance of payment between Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. Yet, Naira has lost six and half times more value than Kenya's Shilling and South Africa's Rand.
"If only we had maintained that level of stability as those two other countries, Nigeria will be a $1 trillion economy. What that means is that the size of the middle class will probably be 10 times what it is, and every single investor will take us seriously," he said.
Oyedele described the current tax reforms as people-centric, growth focused and efficiency driven.
He disclosed that the gazette of the recently signed tax law was being printed, and the final copy of the tax would be released to the public afterwards.
He disclosed that the government is developing a robust presumptive tax regime to ensure hard-to-tax persons and high net worth individuals pay the appropriate taxes.
The Regional Senior Partner, PwC West Market Area, Sam Abu, said perspectives of stakeholders were critical in ensuring that those reforms take root and deliver on the outcomes that had been promised.
He also noted that the reforms embarked on by the government were a good starting point for engaging in that conversation very robustly.
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Abu said, "At PwC, the objective is clear. We want to remove complexity from tax. We want to help our clients to anticipate risk and deliver solutions that are practical and tailored to their businesses so that business leaders can focus on what you do best, which is making an impact and growing your businesses."
