A tax expert and Chief Executive Officer of AOC-Adebisi Oderinde & Co, Adebisi Oderinde, has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to shelve the plan of executing a new tax reform in Nigeria.
Oderinde enjoined the President to allow small and medium businesses to grow at a pace before executing any tax reform, saying such a move would affect many states.
Oderinde stated this during the inauguration ceremony of the company’s Head Office in the Kara area of Ogun State.
The CEO, a chartered accountant and tax consultant with over 28 years of experience, said many people think that the planned reform is to favour Lagos State.
He however stated that the state would be negatively affected if the tax reform takes effect due to the present economic challenges in Nigeria.
The tax professional urged the President to immediately discontinue plans to raise the tax bar or any other move to executive the tax reforms.
Oderinde said, “My advice is for us to make hay while the sun shines, and the journey of 1,000km starts with a step, and slow and steady wins the race. The country is hard! You know I am a tax practitioner and as much as we continue to pray for our President, he must listen to the words of the elders especially as it concerns tax reform.
This is not the right time to reform any tax, we do not need to change any rate at the moment. The purchasing power of Nigerians is very low. I understand some people are thinking of VAT and also thinking there may be a tax derivation and all, but this is not the time to reform tax. Even in Lagos State that everybody thinks the reform will favour, it won’t favour them. It will rather affect Lagos state. One of the legs of the reform is the consumption tax and they will cancel it. Lagos makes more money from consumption tax than any other state in the federation.
“They also want to raise the bar of PAYE, the result released by NBS in 2023 shows that the total IGR in the 36 states plus the FCT is about N2.4tn, and the PAYE in it is about 63 per cent. If they adjust the PAYE it will affect so many states. Instead of the northerners looking at that, they are considering VAT and if the PAYE is raised just like they want to do, it will affect them more than even VAT.”
Meanwhile, he spoke about the logo of the company which shows three colours, including grey, red, and blue. He said the colours represent three stages of challenges, relief, and breakthroughs that he and the company had undergone.
Oderinde added that he owed it all to God, saying when the building of the office space commenced, he never believed it could be completed in his lifetime.
Dignitaries present at the event include the Alake and Paramount Ruler of Egbaland, Michael Gbadebo; Former Secretary to the Ogun State Government, Taiwo Adeoluwa; the Apena of Egbaland and father of Dimeji Bankole, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alami Bankole; Olofin Isheri, Oba Sulaimon Bamigbade; and Olu of Arepo, Oba Sobowale Benson.
Others include the former Managing Director of the Skye Bank Plc and Chairman of the Occasion, Timothy Oguntayo; Executive Chairman of Ogun State Internal Revenue Service, Olugbenga Olaleye; Bishop Diocese of Lagos West of the Anglican Communion, Dr James Odedeji, among others.
Speaking at the event, the Chairman of the occasion praised Oderinde for his integrity and diligence in all of his dealings.
PUNCH
