The Ministers of Finance from the third world countries have tasked leaders of emerging economies to look inwards for domestic resource mobilisation as a way of achieving their developmental goals.
The ministers stated this during a High Level discussion chaired by Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on the sidelines of the ongoing 68th session of the United Nations in New York, United States of America.
The UN Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria reports that the discussion was tagged “a prelude to the 2014 meeting in Mexico of the Global Partnership for effective Development Cooperation.”
They noted that domestic resource mobilisation was the most effective way for developing countries to generate revenue, build infrastructure and social services.
According to the discussants, issues of domestic resource mobilisation rather than aids often translate to tax holidays for many multilateral organisations operating in the third world nations.
They agreed that rather than wait for aid, which Johnson Sirleaf, the Liberian President, said puts African nations under undue pressure, the relationship should be anchored on mutual respect and accountability.
Sirleaf said that this was better and more sustainable than insisting on the belief that the recipients African countries must get it right 100 per cent.
The Liberian president also added that the rules of the game must be respected with fair taxes and profits from corporate organisations, especially from the multinationals anticipating quick profits and repatriations.
“We need support from developed countries,” she said.
The participants believed that an improved tax administration system should ensure that the right tax was paid, especially by privileged individuals and organisations whom they claimed evade payment of taxes.
The participants noted that Columbia stood out as an example of a country that revolutionised its tax administration system and shot up its revenues, followed by Lagos State, which was used as a reference point for African states.
While the participants agreed it was difficult to ask citizens to pay tax when governments are perceived to be corrupt and hardly deliver infrastructure commensurate with tax demands, natural resource dependent economies, the panel said, faced the challenge in mobilising domestic tax revenues.
“Lack of transparency and information limited their benefits,” they insisted.
Okonja-Iweala said she was happy at the outcome.
She said: “So much has emerged from this conversation.
“What can we do to finance our own development with vast amount of illicit flows yet to be repatriated?”
