*Demands it’s withdrawal
By Chesa Chesa
The National Economic Council (NEC) has asked President Bola Tinubu to withdraw the contentious Tax Bill the Presidency forwarded to the National Assembly for passage.
Some stakeholders, particularly the Northern Governors Forum, had rejected the derivation-based model for Value Added tax (VAT) distribution in the new tax bill stating it is against the interest of the North.
Meeting at the Presidential Villa on Thursday, the NEC, which is the highest advisory body to the President and chaired by the Vice-President, advised that the Bill be withdrawn to allow for wider and more comprehensive consultations among stakeholders.
Briefing State House correspondents after the NEC meeting attended by State Governors, Minister of Justice, Central Bank of Nigeria governor, among others, Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, said a lot of misinformation and misconception had trailed the bill, and this would be addressed subsequently.
Gov Makinde also pointed out that after NEC took a presentation from the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on fiscal policy and tax reforms, it concluded that the country was not doing enough to rake in revenues from all available sources as appropriate.
He said: “The Council acknowledged that the country is underperforming on all indices as regards huge from major revenue sources, also tax to GDP ratio and so on.
“So, after extensive deliberation, NEC noted the need for sufficient alignment between and amongst the stakeholders for the proposed reforms.
“The Council therefore, recommend the need to withdraw the bill currently before the National Assembly on tax reforms so that we can have wider consultations and also build consensus around these reforms for the benefit of the entire country, and also to give people, for them to know the vision and where we are moving the country in terms of a tax reform, because there’s really a lot of miscommunication, misinformation.
“So, the bill will draw from the National Survey. And then there will be consultations afterwards.”
