By Ezrel Tabiowo
Abuja
Senators, in a bid to stop any attempt by the federal government to fund part of the 2016 budget with loans, yesterday at the second day running of debate of the general principles of the N6.08 trillion 2016 budget, called for heavy taxation of Nigerians to make up for the shortfalls that may arise in the projected revenues.
One of the projected revenues in the budget already crashing, is the N820 billion oil revenue that is at a deficit of N395billion now going by the $27 per barrel it sells at the international market as against $38 per barrel projected in the budget.
According to the lawmakers, instead of relying heavily on borrowing, substantially, for the implementation of the budget, which goes by average of N500million daily, heavy taxation as an alternative, should be adopted.
The Senate Chief Whip, Olusola Adeyeye (APC Osun Central), who advocated for heavy taxation on Nigerians, said without spreading the dragnet of taxation in the country to all needed areas, there would be no money to fund the budget in the face of dwindling oil revenue.
According to him, the country needed to go back to the model of governance used during the first republic, where every adult was made to pay tax and not now that only civil or public servants, pay tax.
He said: “If we are going to move this country forward, we must go back to what we did in the days of Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello and Nnamdi Azikiwe.
“Nobody in my village will go to his farm until he can produce his tax receipt, we need ingenuity to bring this to pass. We must begin to tax things like cigarette, alcohol, if you beat your wife, you pay heavily for it”, he said.
