Africa can’t afford to politicise tax administration, says AFoDeC

African countries should not politicise tax administration, says AFoDeC . In Picture, Tunde Fowler, Chairman, African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) and Executive Chairman, FIRS

Africa can’t afford to politicise tax administration, says AFoDeC

With the current realities in the economy of most African countries, the African Foundation for Development Communication (AFoDeC) has urged countries in Africa to pay more attention to tax revenue than relying on grants or depletable oil revenue sources.

The Executive Secretary of AFoDeC, Ikenna Osu told newsmen in Abuja that for Africa to get taxation right, “they must not play politics with tax administration because taxation is never an all comers affair”.

He said that oil prices are not sustainable and foreign donors are attaching inhuman conditions to lending money to developing economies.

“The truth is that oil prices are not sustainable. Today, you see it rise, the following day, you see it fall. You cannot plan with it. Foreign donors are giving you with one hand and expecting more from you from the other hand. So, we need to fall back on taxation.

“Africa needs to develop her tax system like we have in other continents where taxation is done with the help of data and technology. In developed economies, they make it impossible for you to evade taxes because your information is in the system. We should encourage that in Africa. For instance, in Nigeria, they are making innovations, capturing new taxpayers and those are steps in the right direction. I have listened to the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Tunde Fowler and matched it with current trends in taxation and I feel that if we see that somebody is doing the right thing, the best we could do is to encourage that person and not necessarily trying to play politics with issues of the economy”, he said.

AFoDeC, which is an International Non-Governmental Organisation (INGO) noted that currently, the oil jumped more than 3% to above $63 a barrel on Thursday after Iran shot down a military drone belonging to the United States of America (USA) but noted that such sharp increase may not be sustained because of a “push and pull factors”

“For instance, oil jumped more than 3% to above $63 a barrel on Thursday. This is in reaction to Iran shooting down a U.S. military drone. This is already raising fears of a military confrontation between Tehran and Washington. Eventually, this could lead to the fall of the oil in the near future. It is a push and pull thing.