Jonathan seeks ICAN’s support in move against tax evaders

President Goodluck Jonathan Tuesday presented what appeared to be a performance scorecard to members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) who converged in Abuja for their 44th annual conference to discuss the concept of public interest. He told the gathering that his administration has deployed all public resources within its control in good conscience for the public good in the country as can be seen in improved budgetary implementation and physical projects executed. A recent joint report by the Budget Office of the Federation and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation indicates that budget implementation by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of  the Federal Government has considerably soared with the least implementing agency - the  Federal Ministry of Environment- recording 46 per cent utilisation mark while the record of unspent funds returned to the treasury at the close of the account has equally dramatically shrunk to only N35 billion for the fiscal year 2013 just passed by. Jonathan Tuesday said his administration was prepared to do more for the public good but was hampered by scarce resources. He then implored the ICAN members, most of whom audit business entities in the country, to assist the government to block many revenue leakages, particularly in taxes, by exposing tax evaders who are in their millions so as to recover their tax obligations to enable government deliver more services to the people. Jonathan who was represented at the conference by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, painted the ugly situation in the dodging of taxes in Nigeria, saying: “We will forge on in our implementation of sound macro-economic policy, and we call for ICAN’s support particularly as we work on improving government revenues.”

Guardian Newspaper