Federal Government yesterday, said that the recently-launched Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) will attract over $1 million into the nation’s coffers.
Speaking during a sensitization workshop on the scheme organised by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in Lagos, Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, said that the Federal Government has a target of about $1 billion from the scheme if people pay the right taxes.
“We have set a preliminary target of about $1billion from the scheme and we think we might get more. We are going to see how it goes but the right incentive is to get people to pay the right taxes continuously. What is important is getting people into the tax net and paying the right taxes. The majority of the people that are paying tax at the moment are those that are on Pay As You Earn (PAYE) platform, but the ones who seem to be evading taxes are those who own their businesses and this is unfair as everyone needs to pay his tax according to their level of income. That is how progressive taxes work in the world” she said.
Adeosun said the government intends to drive deep awareness and will continue to create more initiatives, urging Nigerians to partake in the initiative as they would benefit immensely from the scheme. “We also intend to go to shopping centres to talk to people through the first batch of liaison officers who have already been recruited and more are being trained.
