There is nothing left to add to the tax bracket, and we have a substantial mandate to generate revenue
What we now have settled down to is a government that has shown an extreme bias for revenue generation rather than wealth creation
When you pursue a significant interest in generating revenues without addressing the requisite blocking of loopholes, and fail to ensure that the funds are effectively plugged into wealth creation, then we have a scenario where we seem to be pouring water into a basket.
Customs at the ports are recording bumper collections, FIRS is also recording huge receipts, diaspora inflow is quadrupling, and exports are increasing as a percentage of GDP. We should be focusing on the fiscal side of things if the government truly knows what it is doing.
With this increased revenue profile, we are still relying on foreign credit for even recurrent expenditure, simply cos the Government has no political will to curb its spending, truly block leakages, reduce the cost of governance and really fight corruption, which is a massive leak of resources.
Granted, the indices are stabilising, inflation is dropping, the Naira is gaining strength, and infrastructure development, with projects like the Lagos-Calabar and Dangote Refinery, to mention a few, is showing positive reflections on the Government, we are still far from Uhuru, and this is why the Government must continue to ensure that the tap for revenue generation continues to flow
Here comes the role of the tax reformer – I continue to forget his name
His mandate is straightforward: ensure efficient collections, widen the taxpaying bracket, and smooth out the disproportionate tax payment regime between the rich and the vast majority of the population.
I hear he has submitted a good paper, which may have found its way into Law, and is expected to be implemented from next year
In his routine enlightenment campaign, he was however quoted to have said that the new tax regime would be so robust that even sex workers would be taxed, and this made a large number of watchers laugh in derision.
This is not the first time the government has been hovering around sex in their desperation to tap into the honeywell.
Just like drunken sailors, governments have been looking at the sex industry in lust
It was the NBS that first announced that it would use it as a basis for its calculations
They were laughed into their caves, and now the tax Czar has come again
To be fair to them, the sex industry generates trillions annually, and no sane hungry government would turn its eyes, especially with the lascivious need for funds by them
From its various subsectors – prostitution, porn, sex toys, etc, the sex industry is Nigeria’s highest employer of labour with the widest participants pulled from all demographics and subclasses
The industry is directly responsible for at least 20% growth in hospitality, healthcare, tourism, infrastructure, media and fashion, amongst others
Contraceptives and other sexual health subsectors of the healthcare industry are valued in billions, throwing up another super subsector – aesthetic surgery
We now spend billions on facial and body-altering surgery.
The sex industry is also the underlying driver of the multi-trillion Naira Detty December, since we all end up in bed at the end of every day of the month
So now the Government wants to tax it all. I must confess that I have not seen the new tax laws or even will understand them when I eventually see them, but I must state very succinctly that this attempt, like its predecessor, will fall by the wayside
Granted, this is happening in other countries, but our system is different
Our industry is fluid, as sex workers cannot only be found on the streets; they are in our homes, offices, churches, mosques, schools, and even the Presidency.
How, then, do you tax a worker who will not identify herself as a worker, even though she or he is a market leader?
Secondly, which customer would agree to be identified and have their name on a receipt for tax purposes, since these customers, like the purveyors, are all over in society, including all those places mentioned
So if the sex worker can’t keep a record of ‘sales’, how do we now access her for tax purposes
Like I have said earlier, I do not understand the parameters or how the Government wants to go about it, but let me quickly add-
Most of the associated inputs in the sex industry have already been taxed and put under VAT
From the hotels, the sex toys, the lubricant, clothes, cars, drugs, almost everything, and it will amount to double taxation to even attempt it
I think maybe they want to now tax the Vagina and license it like we do cars
Yes, that’s possible. We send the vaginas for assessment, like we do MOT for our cars, and then issue an annual licence, which they will pay for, permitting them to go ahead.
This will now raise the moral questions that we have been debating since Eve gave Adam the apple to eat.
If we are going ahead with the registration idea, then a separate government agency can be set up to handle the registrations of Vaginas for the sole purpose of generating much-needed revenue for the government as they seek to fulfil campaign promises
Please, where do I submit my resume for this new agency
Msshee. Misplaced priority
Come and beat me
Duke of Shomolu
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