‘MPC Must Take Aggressive Decisions to Support Economic Recovery’

• ‘MPC Must Take Aggressive Decisions to Support Economic Recovery’

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria has been urged to take “aggressive steps” to enhance economic recovery.

The immediate past President/Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Dr. Olateju Somorin, said this at the 2017 Annual General Meeting of the institute in Lagos, where she listed some of the achievements recorded by the CITN during her two-year tenure.

While noting that the country’s economic recovery would be slow and painful, Somorin said there was the need to make credit available to the real sector in order to stimulate economic activities.

“That (growth) would not be possible with the current interest rate regime. So, the Monetary Policy Committee needs to take some aggressive steps to support the recovery,” she said.

The ex-CITN chief also said contrary to rumours that the Federal Government was planning to increase the rate of the Value Added Tax through the Amendment Bill 2015, the amendment bill was only seeking to make an upward review of the fines and penalties contained in the VAT.

She said, “The Amendment Bill seeks a significant upward review of most of the fines and penalties contained in the Value Added Tax Act CAP Vl. LFN 2004.

“It should be emphasised that the government is not increasing the VAT rate, as speculated. It is instead opting to increase compliance through imposing stern penalties for defaults. If the bill is passed into law, defaulting taxpayers will be liable to severe penalties. Therefore, VAT payers should ensure that taxes are remitted as and when due.”

According to the former CITN boss, the institute is partnering the judiciary, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to enhance productivity and effectiveness.

She said judges in Nigerian needed adequate knowledge on issue relating to taxation in order deliver informed judgment on cases bothering on taxation.

This, she said, would help to eradicate controversial judgments.