According to Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, the federal government of Nigeria is set to increase revenue by introducing new taxes.
Mrs Ahmed made this known to lawmakers at the public hearing on the 2019 budget organised by the Senate and House of Representatives committees on appropriation.
According to her, the federal government has devised a new revenue initiative to increase revenue to fund the 2019 budget.
She said the initiative is segregated into three thematic areas and appealed for the support of the National Assembly.
“The first area is sustainability in revenue generation. The focus of this is for us to build a sustainable revenue generation ecosystem by ensuring resilience and applying automising revenue streams, applying the right incentives, the right safeguards as well as ensuring accountability and performance management systems.”
For this focus, she said the government seeks to improve collection, shock loopholes, and collaborate with trading partners to manage performance, deregulate and provide funding for the energy sector.
Different government officials have suggested new taxes on luxury goods like alcoholic beverages, as well as increase in the Value Added Tax.
The government some months ago increased the minimum wage from N18,000 to N30,000. The new wage has been passed by the National Assembly and awaits assent by the president.
