In a recent interview with Arise News, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Tax Policy and Fiscal Reforms, emphasized the urgency of passing the Tax Reform Bills currently under consideration by the National Assembly.
Oyedele explained that the majority of Nigerians are facing significant struggles, with poverty and inflation on the rise, making tax reforms a pressing issue.
Reacting to comments by Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Zulum, who suggested the proposed bills were being rushed, Oyedele defended the process, noting that extensive consultations had already taken place.
“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 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 remove some of the clauses that are detrimental to Northern Nigeria. What we are saying is, give more time, let us do deeper consultations to understand the details of this tax regime before passing it into law,” Zulum added during an interview on Channels Television.
In response, 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 living in multi-dimensional poverty.”
He pointed out that small businesses are dealing with over 60 official levies and taxes, as well as more than 200 unofficial ones, while many people are struggling to feed themselves due to escalating food inflation.
“Our small businesses are burdened with over 60 official levies, taxes, and more than 200 unofficial ones. We are struggling just to help people feed themselves because inflation is escalating.”
“We have people who don’t have decent jobs. That’s why the poverty rate is high, even though the unemployment rate is officially 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 have been working on this for over a year,” he said.
