A former Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Professor Ali Ahmad, has recalled how the Assembly under his watch saved the State from taking a whopping sum of N21bn bond which the State would still have been servicing at the capital market.
He also admonished the Federal Government not to rush its proposed tax reform bill and focus more on addressing issues of “Trust deficits” to pave the way for the bill and encourage voluntary tax compliance.
In all these, Prof. Ahmad said the media has a critical role to play and cannot afford to go to sleep by ensuring that the government addresses the concerns of the people, especially where there are divergent positions on the sensitive issue.
The former Speaker spoke at the strategic media seminar organised by the Sobi FM chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kwara State Council, in collaboration with the Nigeria Media Parliament in Ilorin. It’s themed “The Role of Media in Promoting Transparency and Accountability in Tax Reforms Legislation”.
He said unless the government at the state and federal levels ensure transparency in tax administration, tax evasion, corruption and non-voluntary compliance by citizens and corporate organisations would remain a major issue to be tackled.
“Once there is transparency in the tax regime, people will comply and pay tax voluntarily, and the nation will be on its path to development,” he said.
Going down memory lane on how the legislature under his leadership saved the State from an avoidable debt burden, Ahmad said the lawmakers rejected a proposal by the executive to raise an N21bn bond from the capital market for infrastructure development and some proposed projects tied to it.
Instead, he said the assembly encouraged the executive to float the Kwara Infrastructure Development Fund where the government was compelled by law to save N500m monthly into the fund for a period of 1 year to meet needed funds.
The former Speaker also revealed that the legislature also mandated the revenue agency to spend 3 per cent out of the 10 per cent collection cost it was entitled to in order to fund pressing projects of the people, a strategy which he said prompted voluntary tax compliance by the populace.
He also said the establishment of the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS) by the then administration of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed was a measure introduced to ensure effective tax administration by encouraging central collection and expansion for the government.
