Experts Explain Nigeria’s low tax ratio

Experts Explain Nigeria’s low tax ratio
Financial experts have attributed the country’s low tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio to inadequate investment in the productive sector of the economy.
They said this in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday.
The Head of Department of Economics, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Prof. Sheriffdeen Tella, Ago Awoye, Ogun State, said inadequate investment in the productive sector was responsible for the low tax to GDP ratio. “The Federal Government has yet to invest adequately in the productive sector that will spur development. “It is only when there are increased business activities and the people are engaged that they will be willing to pay their taxes,” he said.
The don noted that the Federal Government should enhance business confidence in order to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country.
“Government should continue to showcase the enormous business prospects of our nation regardless of the headwinds we are contending with currently.
“Our leaders must stop complaining about the state of the economy they inherited and give the people hope, in order to get their support during the execution of their own policies,” he said.
Also speaking, a tax expert, who pleaded anonymity, urged the Federal Government to implement the most recent national tax policy so as to change the narrative.
“The yet-to-be implemented 2017 tax policy is quite a comprehensive document that has the capacity to boost the nation’s tax to GDP ratio.