An international nongovernmental organization, Oxfam in Nigeria, has called on the Federal Government to work more to block all the leakages that powerful individuals explore to avoid tax and collect huge returns.
Acting Country Director, Oxfam in Nigeria, Constant Tchona, made the call at a media roundtable in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to him, if the leakages are blocked properly, it would add more revenue to government which could be used to provide infrastructure and other essential services to the poor.
He said the fortunes of the rich are often boosted by tax dodging and evasion, big returns to shareholders and executives.
Tchona said: โWhile the rich individuals are avoiding taxes, the poor are burdened with multiple taxations which hinder their businesses to grow. Poorly paid work for the many is supporting extreme wealth for the few. Women are the worse hit, and almost all super-rich are men, that is how the richest 1% accumulated 82% of the wealth created last year.
โWe salute Nigeria Governmentโs efforts to alleviate poverty in programmes such as, the National Home-Grown School Feeding, N-Power for unemployed graduates, Conditional Cash Transfer, and the Government Empowerment and Enterprise Programme.
โWe also commend the government on the review of the National Tax Policy, which if properly implemented will solve the issues related to tax and revenue leakages. We request Government to do more to implement policy that will close the gap between the rich and the poor.
โWe ask government to work more to block all the leakages that the powerful individuals explore to avoid tax and collect huge returns. If done properly, this will give more revenues to government to provide infrastructure and other essential services to the poor.โ
Tchona said inequality remained a major concern for Oxfam as world leaders are meeting in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum to deliberate on global economic issues.
He noted that Nigerians were worried by the widening inequality gap in the country.
Tchona explained that only the federal government can create a more equal society by prioritizing ordinary workers and small-scale food producers instead of the rich and powerful
