Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Bello, has warned high-income individuals who provide false information on their income to refrain from such attitude.
The minister issued this warning at a one-day tax seminar with the theme,” Reviving the Tax Culture of Filing Tax Returns, “
organised by the Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS), Tuesday in Abuja.
The minister who was represented by Alhaji Lukman Agboola, the mandate secretary of FCT Economic Planning, Revenue Generation and Public-Private Partnership, said it was worrisome that only 10 per cent of registered residents of the FCT are contributing to the maintenance and development of the territory by paying their taxes.
He said: “As you are all aware, one of the canons of taxation is
fairness, such that payment of tax is proportional to the
income of the person.
“Therefore, tax should be equitable in a way that amount of tax payable should be proportionate to income.
“It is however worrisome that, according to reports reaching
me, only 10 per cent of registered residents of the FCT are
contributing to the maintenance and development of the
territory by paying their taxes.
“This needs to change, both for fairness and entrenchment
of the rule of law. We must begin to treat tax evasion as the
crime that it is, “he said.
Bello encouraged all residents of the FCT to take filing of returns as an obligatory and necessary step towards supporting the socio-infrastructural development of FCT.
“We must understand that taxation is not just a means of
providing funds for services and infrastructure, it is also a
means for the high earners to contribute to the
quality of life of the low earners.”
