Okwe Obi, Abuja
Presidential candidate on the platform of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, has said the Presidential Executive Order 8 is a bad policy that should not stand.
President Muhammadu Buhar had signed the Executive Order which meant that Nigerian taxpayers who hold offshore assets and incomes are expected to, within a period of 12 months, voluntarily declare those assets and pay required taxes from such assets.
In a monitored television programme in Abuja, Mailafia described the order as “double taxation policy and also a bad policy.”
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According to him, “The principle of double taxation is not a good thing. If they are assets abroad in Europe or America, that I am familiar with, owners pay taxes on them.”
He continued, “In Europe, you can’t escape taxes. I assume that there already paying taxes on those assets.
“The idea of taxing them at home and abroad is a bad policy.”
He also noted that one of the problems confronting Nigeria is the lack of good policy implementation.
“It is not the absence of ideas but rigorous implementation. We need to put more money into the economy.
“There is a lot of money out there. We have done foolish things that have driven money out of the banking system.
“The EFCC has no business with banks unless they are investigating somebody. Even if you make legitimate money, you will be afraid to put it in the bank. And that is why the banks are suffering,” he submitted.