The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, has emphasized the urgent need to pass the Tax Reforms Bills, pointing out that many Nigerians are facing economic hardship.
Oyedele made the remarks during an interview on Arise News on Wednesday.
His comments came in response to criticisms from Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Zulum, regarding the proposed tax reforms currently under consideration by the National Assembly. Zulum had previously accused Oyedele’s team of rushing the enactment of the bills and argued that they were accompanied by misconceptions that require more in-depth consultations.
Governor Zulum expressed concerns about the value-added tax provision in the proposed laws, claiming that the provision, based on their calculations, would primarily benefit Lagos and Rivers States. He also stated that, according to their research, Northern Nigeria would suffer losses under the new tax regime.
Zulum further questioned the urgency behind the reforms, urging the federal government to delay the process and reconsider certain clauses that he believed were harmful to Northern Nigeria. He called for more time to engage in detailed consultations to fully understand the implications of the proposed tax laws before they are passed into law.
“On this tax issue, there are a lot of misconceptions. We felt that the VAT provision in the tax law, based on the calculations we did, would only benefit Lagos and Rivers States. We did our own research and concluded that we would lose,” Zulum said.
“Why are we in a rush? We advised the Federal Government to take a pause and expunge some of the clauses that are inimical to Northern Nigeria. What we are saying is, give more time, let us do a deeper consultation to understand the nitty-gritty of this tax regime before passing it into law,” Zulum added during an interview on Channels Television.
Responding to Zulum’s comments, Oyedele denied rushing the bills, adding that everyone, including the governor, “needs to acknowledge that we are at a stage where the majority of our people are struggling and are in multi-dimensional poverty.
“We have people who don’t have decent jobs. That’s why the poverty rate is high, even though officially they say the unemployment rate is low. We are dealing with all these issues.”
“If you want to provide relief for your people, you should do it quickly because it’s urgent. It’s an emergency. The way we should respond to these issues should be similar to how the world responded to COVID-19.
“There were countries where laws were passed within two days because it was an emergency. We are not even doing it in two days. We’ve been working on this for over a year,” he said.
He continued, ” And I said jokingly to the governors that I don’t expect your excellencies to read all these details because we’ve also shared them with your technical people.”
“But we’ve done all of that. The bills are now in the National Assembly. As we speak, the bills have been there for over a month already. So, I don’t think that’s rushing it.”
