The Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed that the country currently spends less than 50 per cent of its revenue on debt servicing.
While serving as the keynote speaker at PwC’s Executive Summit on Nigeria’s Tax Reform, with the theme “The New Tax Era: What Nigeria’s Tax Reform Means to Individuals and Businesses,” in Lagos on Monday, Oyedele explained that the government was spending almost 97 per cent of its revenue on debt servicing before the economic reforms.
“We’ve cleared unmet forex futures that were more than $7bn. And we move from under $4 bn external reserve to over $20bn today. Budget deficit is declining, and we’re spending more on infrastructure.
“Tax to GDP ratio moved from under 10 per cent is now 13.5 per cent in two years. Instead of 97 per cent, service debt is now under 50 per cent in two years. We no longer print money to spend. Rather, we’ve paid down part of the ways and means that the previous administration printed,” he stated.
