Senator representing Ondo South Senatorial district, Jimoh Ibrahim has urged the government to tax rich Nigerians more.
The lawmaker argued that it is a global practice for a country to tax its rich citizens heavily during economic crisis.
He sad this would help the country come out of its economic quagmire.
Ibrahim stated this on Tuesday while briefing Senate Press Corps after plenary.
He gave clarification on his intervention at plenary on the consideration of the report of the joint committees on Finance and National Planning and Economic Affairs on the 2025-2027 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
He said, “My worry is that the rich in Nigeria are not paying enough taxes in order to be a good jolly fellow with the poor.
“In other countries, taxes are paid on transactions. The rich need to pay more taxes and one of the areas where our economic gap can be covered is when we address those lacuna.
“Luxury taxes should be monitored and collected. We should look at a law that will police transactional tax on the rich.”
To make this effective, he said “there should be an adequate data bank of the taxable rich”.
“GDP to tax ratio in Nigeria is 18 percent, while the test 72 percent are not taxed.
“It is unfortunate economically that 72 percent of the Nigerian population are not in the tax net.”
