Expert tasks govt to reduce spending on ‘invisible’ transactions
NAN-HE-13
By Olawunmi Ashafa
Transactions
Lagos, Sept. 23, 2016(NAN) Mrs Morenike Babington-Ashaye has called on federal and state governments to minimise its spending on foreign ‘invisible’ transactions to reduce the huge reduction from nation’s tax revenue.
Babington-Ashaye said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos that reducing the amount of money spent on foreign ‘invisible’ transactions would help boost job opportunities available to Nigerians.
According to her, the Federal Government spent about 80 per cent of its tax revenue on administration, including consultancy.
NAN reports that invisible transactions relate to payment for services and intangible goods.
According to her, the way the tax law has been positioned is also a challenge such that politicians are not paying the way they should.
She said consultancy service was one of the key areas that drew much from the nation’s tax revenue.
“Our government prefers to hire a foreign consultant for services which Nigerians are capable of doing.
“If the government believes in Nigerians, it will not pay a lot of dollars in invisible transactions that relate to consultancy.
“Foreigners are usually expensive and the income they generate are repatriated to their countries.
“Government must insist and hire Nigerians to do those jobs that can be carried out by Nigerians.
“In other countries, we are not giving that same privilege as Nigerian government does to foreigners here.
NAN recalls that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in August 2015, said that all legitimate requests for foreign currency for eligible transactions, normally referred to as “invisibles shall be fully met at the official/interbank exchange rate.
The bank said they included remittances for school fees, student maintenance allowances, Business Travel Allowance (BTA), Personal Travel Allowance (PTA), medical and other eligible transactions.(NAN)
AWA/IA
Edited by Idris Abdulrahman