Featured

China’s poor rural population lifted out of poverty under current standards, Xi says

Published

4 years ago

December 17, 2020

All of China’s impoverished rural population has been lifted out of poverty under current standards, announced Chinese Presiden’’/

t Xi Jinping on Monday, after the last nine poverty-stricken counties in the southwestern province of Guizhou declared victory over poverty.

Following President Xi’s anti-poverty drive, the Chinese leadership set 2020 as the deadline to eradicate absolute poverty in the country, defined as living on an annual income below 4,000 yuan, or roughly $611.40

About 100 million poor people have shaken off poverty during eight years of sustained work, Xi said in his congratulatory letter to a global forum that shares poverty alleviation experience.

“The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government have always been devoted to the cause of letting the people lead a good life,” stressed Xi, who also serves as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

Xi：Battle against poverty a global challenge

Yet, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic still soars across the world, the battle against poverty remains a tough challenge, as Xi pointed out. “China is willing to work with other countries in the process of reducing poverty and to push for the building of a community with a shared future for mankind,” he said in the message.

According to data from the World Bank, China has lifted more than 850 million people from extreme poverty after the country’s economic reformation in 1978. Since 2013, an average of over 10 million people were lifted from deprivation after taking the approach of “targeted poverty alleviation,” which essentially means taking on tailored relief measures to fit different local conditions.

“Every poor household, tens of millions, has its own dossier, listing every member; it is updated monthly, and information is sent to Beijing regularly,” wrote Robert Lawrence Kuhn in a CGTN opinion piece, after spending weeks in some of China’s poorest regions. And that has surprised this international corporate strategist and recipient of the China Reform Friendship Medal (2018).

Yet China’s strive in eradicating poverty has not been limited to the homeland.

In a recent meeting to honor the 75th anniversary of the United Nations (UN), Xi announced China’s new measures to augment the efforts of the UN in alleviating all forms of poverty. With more than 700 million people living in extreme poverty, representing 10 percent of the world’s population, eliminating poverty by 2030 tops the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

“In spite of the fact that the dynamics for poverty may differ from one country to the other, there are many lessons that can be drawn from the effective economic measures China has implemented in reducing poverty,” commented chartered economist Alexander Ayertey Odonkor.

“Developing countries can take a cue from China’s level of infrastructure development in urban and rural areas by addressing challenges associated with electrification, road networks, housing, water, and sanitation. Adopting a development-oriented approach in mitigating poverty has proven to be an indispensable tool,” he said.

Share on Facebook

Business

Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

Published

2 weeks ago

March 6, 2025

The Gleamer

Ismaila Ahmad Abdullahi Ph.D

The public hearings conducted recently by the two Chambers of the National Assembly have elicited positive responses from a broad spectrum of Nigerians, cutting across regional interest groups, government agencies, civil society groups, concerned individuals, the academia, and Labour Unions, among diverse others. Contrary to a few dissensions hitherto expressed in the media, almost all the stakeholders who spoke during the week-long sessions were unanimous in their declaration that the hallowed Chambers should pass the tax reform bills after a clean-up of the grey areas.

The public hearings were auspicious for all Nigerians desirous of economic growth and fiscal responsibility. They were also a watershed moment for the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which had been upbeat about the tax reforms. Indeed, the public hearings had rekindled hope in the tenets of democracy that guarantee freedom of expression and equitable space for cross-fertilisation of ideas. Without gainsaying the fact, the tax reform bills have been unarguably about the most thought-provoking issues in Nigeria today, drawing variegated perspectives and commentaries from even unlikely quarters such as the faith-based leaders, student bodies, and trade unions, which speaks much about the importance of the bills.

In the build-up to the public hearings, not many people believed that the bills would make it to the second reading, much less the public hearings. Even the Northern stakeholders who seemed unlikely to support the passage of the bills have softened their stance and have given valuable suggestions that would enrich the substance of the bills. The Arewa Consultative Forum came to the public hearings well-prepared with a printed booklet that addressed their concerns. It concluded with an advisory that the bills should be “Well planned, properly communicated, strategically implemented and ample dialogue and political consensus allowed for the reforms to be accepted.”

The concerns of ACF ranged from the composition of the proposed Nigeria Revenue Service Board as contained in Part 111, Section 7 of the bill, the unlimited Presidential power to exempt/wave tax payment as proposed in Section 75(1) of the bill, the family income or inheritance tax as contained in Part 1, Section 4(3) of the bill, to the issues around development levy and VAT. On the development levy, the ACF stated that unless the Federal Government is considering budgetary funding for TETFUND, NASENI and NITDA, it does not see the “wisdom behind the plan to replace (them) with NELFUND”.

The position of the North was equally reinforced by the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria, Northern Elders Forum, Kano State Government, Professor Auwalu Yadudu, and the FCT Imams. Like the ACF, these stakeholders lent their respective voices to the Section on the Inheritance Tax in Part 1 of the bill and the use of the term ‘ecclesiastical’, which, in their views, undermines certain religious rights and beliefs. The Kano State Government, represented by Mahmud Sagagi, affirmed that “we support tax modernisation” but cautioned that “we must ensure that this process does not come at the expense of states’ constitutional rights and economic stability”. Professor Auwalu Yadudu, a constitutional law professor, drew attention to the use of the ‘supremacy clause’ and cautioned that the repeated use of “notwithstanding” in the bills would undermine the supremacy of the Nigerian constitution if passed as such.

Other stakeholders that made contributions at the sessions included the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service, and a host of others. While most of their concerns bordered on technical issues requiring fine-tuning, they were unanimous in their support for the bills. They aligned with the position of the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, Ph.D. and the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, which is that the extant tax laws and fiscal regulations are obsolete necessitating reforms aimed at creating a fair and equitable tax and fiscal space to grow Nigeria’s economy.

In one of the sessions, Dr Zaach Adedeji expounded on the criss-cross of trade activities in the Free Trade Zone whereby companies misuse tax waivers as exporters to sell their goods or services in the Customs Area at an amount usually less than the price the operators in the Customs Area who pay VAT and other taxes sell theirs thereby disrupting business transactions. This way, the operators in the Free Trade Zone shortchange the government in paying their due taxes by circumventing extant regulations, which are inimical to the economy’s growth.

Overall, the presentations were forthright, foresighted, and helpful in elucidating the issues contained in the bills. According to the statistics read out at the end of the hearings at the Senate, 75 stakeholders were invited, 65 made submissions, and 61 made presentations. At the House of Representatives 53 stakeholders made presentations. By all means, this is a fair representation. Given the presentations, it is evident that the National Assembly has gathered enough materials to guide its deliberations on the bills. As we look forward to the passage of the bills, we commend the leadership of the National Assembly for their unwavering commitment to making the bills see the light of the day.

Abdullahi is the Director of the Communications and Liaison Department, FIRS.

Share on Facebook