The Chairman, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Muhammad Shehu, says Nigerians must endeavour to pay their taxes to boost government revenue and improve service delivery.

The RMAFC boss noted that less than 40 million Nigerians are presently captured in the tax net and paying taxes.

Shehu also clarified that political office holders in Nigeria did not earn outrageous emoluments, as speculated by Nigerians.

According to him, the commission developed software to enhance transparency in revenue generation and sharing amongst the three tiers of government.

He commended the idea of a Tax Reform Committee recently set up by President Bola Tinubu, insisting that the committee would do a lot to include economic players from the informal sector in the tax net.

He urged the Federal Inland Revenue Service to collaborate with the Nigeria Customs Service to identify certain categories of Nigerians who evade taxes.

While reacting to Nigerians’ recent condemnation of reports on a proposed 114 percent increase in salaries of political office holders by the commission, amid what they described as biting economic hardships in the country.

Shehu described information about the salary increase as not true.

He, however, said that it was the constitutional responsibility of RMAFC to determine and review the salaries of executive, legislative, and judicial officers.

He said that their salaries were last reviewed in 2007.

The chairman said that what people considered outrageous earnings by lawmakers were statutory office running costs, which should ordinarily be managed centrally by the National Assembly Service Commission.