Except for any last-minute changes or pushback from the affected agencies, the federal government will soon introduce a law to cut the amount revenue-generating agencies take as cost of collection to one percent, a move that would significantly grow income to the government for project financing. The benchmark for the cost of collecting revenue globally is one per cent. In South Africa and some other African countries, the cost of collecting revenue by any government agency is less than one per cent.

In Nigeria, the cost of collection is four to 35 per cent. The proposed legislation is part of the about 450 policy recommendations by the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms to the executive and legislature for amendment of the nation’s old-fashioned tax laws that have catastrophic damage on effective mobilisation. “What are they collecting? So, we are saying the one per cent will cut across everybody.

If you cannot collect revenue with one per cent you should not be collecting it; it means you are not prepared for it,” chairman of the tax committee Taiwo Oyedele said yesterday at a public consultation workshop for journalists and public analysts. If passed into law, the Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development (MMSD) among others. He said the agencies that are collecting revenue for the.