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By Stella Obi

For the development and growth of any society, the provision of basic infrastructure is necessary.

This explains why the government shows concern about how funds can be made available to achieve its set goals for society.

The government needs to execute its social obligations to the public. These social obligations include the provision of infrastructure and social services. One of the main methods through which funds are acquired for the government is through taxation.

Citizens are expected to discharge their civic responsibility by paying their taxes to contribute to the development of society. When citizens evade taxes, the government will not be able to discharge its duties to the citizens. The federal and state governments have deployed several measures aimed at curtailing tax evasion.

Tax evasion and avoidance have adverse effects on government revenue, and how can this problem be mitigated?

This was the crux of the 2nd National Tax Summit held on Tuesday at Banex Mall, Lekki, Lagos, where experts in taxation identified tax evasion as one of the problems plaguing tax administration in Nigeria. The convener of the Summit was the Founder and Managing Partner, Okwudili Ijezie & Co (Chartered Accountants), Chief Blakey Ijezie, and the event had its theme as; “Tax Evasion in Nigeria: The Solution is Here.”

The experts noted that preventing tax evasion requires implementing a multidimensional strategy that includes education, better tax legislation, incentives, and effective enforcement.

In his lecture entitled “Designing Incentive-Based Measures Against Tax Evasion in Nigeria,” a Public Finance expert and Sustainable Development Economist, Dr. Tunji Adeniyi, enumerated low tax education, complex tax legislation, economic pressure and leadership insensitivity, high tax rates, multiplicity, and lack of integrity as some reasons why citizens evade taxes.

Others include weak consequence management, ineffective tax administration, informality (huge informal sector of the economy), and economic digitization outpacing tax digitization. Dr. Adeniyi opined that to checkmate the menace of tax evasion in Nigeria, incentive-based measures against tax evasion should be instituted.

He gave the incentive measures as citizen education and national orientation, right and transparent government spending, a conducive business environment, investment in and adoption of innovation, restructuring public service, retraining and refocusing civil servants to facilitate efficiency.

Still part of the incentive-based measures were motivating citizens to pay taxes in the correct amount on due dates and instituting effective and efficient consequence management. According to the Economist, efficiency in tax collection leads to efficiency in tax utilization.

In his lecture on “Taxation and Foreign Debts,” Pastor Felix Jarikre cautioned countries to desist from accessing foreign debts, saying this could be detrimental in the long run, and urged governments to emphasize more on taxation to grow the economy.

Speaking on “Taxation and Public Good,” Professor Friday Ndubuisi of the Department of Philosophy, University of Lagos gave features of a good tax system to include equity, certainty, convenience, and administrative efficiency, maintaining that tax evasion thwarts government’s efforts to collect revenue required for public services, infrastructure, and socio-economic development.

Professor Ndubuisi, while saying that tax evasion has moral and legal implications, enjoined the citizens to live up to their civic responsibility, and the government discharges its moral and legal obligations to the public.

In his speech, the Chairman of the occasion, Otunba Ranti Omole, underscored the importance of taxation awareness. He informed that taxation was one of the avenues through which the government gets funds to develop the country. Otunba commended Chief Blakey Ijezie for his efforts at creating tax awareness in the country.

Contributing, Founder and Managing Partner, Okwudili Ijezie & Co (Chartered Accountants), Chief Blakey Ijezie, noted that checkmating tax evasion in society requires constant citizen orientation and strengthening of the administrative tax system. Chief Ijezie was touched by the patriotic zeal and concern for our challenging economic situation to arrange a national tax conference, on a pro bono basis, free of charge, as his own contribution to the country's struggle to attain economic stability.