Ime Akpan
The national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has cautioned the federal government against the planned increase of the value added tax saying it will reduces the purchasing power of ordinary Nigerians and increase hardship.
It would be recalled that the minister of budget and national planning, Mr. Udo Udoma and the chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Babatunde Fowler had mooted the idea of upward review of VAT by 50 per cent following the approval of N30, 000 as minimum wage by the national assembly.
Udoma and Fowler who stated when they appeared before the senate committee on finance, said the increment was to, among others, enable the federal government to fund the new national minimum wage.
The FIRS chief said the proposed payable VAT by Nigerians based on the increment would actually be between 35 per cent (6.75 per cent) and 50 per cent (7.25 per cent).
But speaking on Thursday during the 11th Bola Tinubu Colloquium marking his 67th birthday at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, Tinubu asked the government to widen its revenue sources so as to boost its base and do more for Nigerians.
“I must say this to Prof. (Yemi) Osinbajo and his team, don’t increase VAT but increase tax net to accommodate those who are not yet paying. Don’t reduce the people’s purchasing power.” We must criticise ourselves,” he said.
Besides, he called on the government to revisit its privatisation and commercialisation programmes to make it more useful to the nation.
Tinubu also asked the government to make power readily available to Nigerians under its ‘Next Level’ policy implementation and stop charging Nigerians exorbitantly for electricity not consumed.
