Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun has said the Federal Government would do everything possible to block tax revenue leakages and illicit flow of funds out of the country.

Adeosun stated this on Friday while delivering the keynote address at the NSE-Bloomberg CEO roundtable in Lagos.

She said, “We have just 40 million active tax payers out of an estimated 69.9 million who are economically active in Nigeria. And of that 40 million, the majority are PAYE (Pay As You Earn), that is those who have their tax deducted at source.

“Among those who are even paying tax, there is widespread malpractice that results in only part of the actual income being subjected to tax.”

She added that the Federal Executive Council has asked the ministry of finance to sign a convention which would allow it stop companies from evading taxes.

She said, “We have a lot of work to do if we are going to build a sustainable revenue base that we deliver the growth we desire. Even within our tax-paying community, only 214 people in the entire nation pay tax of N120m in spite of having some of the richest people in Africa and some of the best-capitalised companies in Africa; only 214 in the entire country, all of which are in Lagos State.

She added, “And to do so, we will have step on some big toes, and we will need to step on them hard. But we really have no choice. For the size of government we have, the size of country we have and the needs we have, government revenue is simply too low.

“Those who have more must carry their fair share of the tax burden, and so to this end, for the last 15 months, we have engaged in a huge data-gathering exercise.”

Azeez