There can be no doubt that Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, knows her onions well. Mrs. Adeosun may look young and untutored but, beneath that mien what you have is a competent, determined administrator who is eager to make a bold statement. She visited Abeokuta in Ogun state, at the weekend, on official duty. She found time to discuss the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme, VAIDS, whose deadline is March 31st, a matter of 5 days from hence.
The VAIDS is the government’s design to get Nigerian businessmen and organizations that have been evading the payment of their taxes to voluntarily come forward and do the right thing. It has been on for the past six months. Mrs. Adeosun says that when the amnesty period expires at the end of this month, Uncle Sam will begin to nab tax evaders and prosecute them.
But how far has VAIDS gone? In the words of the Finance Minister, “Incredible progress has so far been made. The signs have been very encouraging. We knew that everyone would wait until the last minute, which was something that we expected. I have just spoken with the Chairman of the Inland Revenue Service, here in Ogun state, and he said he had collected N500 million already and there are just a handful of people that have complied, so, the signs are very encouraging”.
Mrs. Adeosun expatiated further, “I know that there are still some people who won’t come forward because they want to see if there’s any bite from the side of the fiscal authorities after March 31st. Many states are working on using sort of mobile courts to fast track cases. They don’t want cases to get caught up in the long legal process because tax evasion is a very easy and straight forward prosecution. They’ve started considering setting up special courts that will deal with tax evasion”.
The Finance Minister described tax evasion as a crime and assured that the government would make public the name of anyone being prosecuted for tax evasion so that it will serve as a deterrent to others. She, however, explained that the government’s focus is to get everybody to do the right thing. In her words, “the money was made in Nigeria and from Nigeria and it is only fair and right that some of that money is ploughed back into the system to enable the government to meet its obligations to the people”.
According to the Minister, the latest figures show that the Federal Inland Revenue Service has collected N17 million from VAIDS, which she described as a huge achievement. The Minster stated that out of 65 million people who are economically active in the country, about 13 million pay their proper tax assessments.
