Dr. Babatunde Fowler, the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS and the recently elected President of the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) in Pretoria, South Africa, spoke in his remarks that the creative industry has launched fresh frontiers and economic opportunities in the field of wealth creation, knowledge economy, employment generation, local capacity utilization and revenue generation, aiming to create a perspective of catapulting unto achieving a high-growth economy.
Mr. Kola Okwola represented Fowler at the occasion. In his speech, he noted that, "the extent to which an economy is able to grow sustainably and develop depends to a large extent, on its ability to generate tax revenue to finance its expenditure and the efficiency of its tax system."
The current re-basing of Nigeria's economy revealed that to the newly rebased Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the entertainment industry contributes over $6 billion, he stressed.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) confirmed that in the first quarter of the year, the entertainment and creative arts industry increased by 8.4 percent. Having said that, the government became eager and interested in subsidizing the industry for it will result to more revenue to the federal and state governments.
Fowler also pointed that the forthcoming sectors of the economy must be cultivated and fortified to grow so as to adjust and be able to compete in the fast-paced global scale. Through this, according to Fowler, revenues for both local and foreign currencies will be easily attracted.
"Those days in the sixties our fathers used to pay their taxes, farmers, traders, artisans and workers they all pay taxes in the sixties. What have gone wrong? That only worker in an organized company and civil servants now pay taxes. Time has come for us to change the attitudes. This programme is technology driven with less paper work. And with this new development we will overcome the challenges that derailed us from paying our taxes," Fowler specified.
Dr. Babatunde Fowler is a Nigerian public officer, tax administrator and social reformer and was the Executive Chairman Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue and Chief Executive Officer Lagos State Internal Revenue Service.
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