President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was Thursday asked to withdraw the tax reform bills from the National Assembly to make for consultations. The national economic council (NEC) made this call after its meeting on Thursday.
Speaking to State House correspondents after the meeting, Seyi Makinde, Oyo State governor, said the Council members agreed that it was necessary to allow for consensus building and understanding of the bill among Nigerians.
Said Makinde: “NEC today took a presentation from the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms. Their main focus is fair taxation, responsible borrowing and sustainable spending”.
He said the Council acknowledged the country’s underperformance across all indices related to major revenue sources, including the tax-to-GDP ratio and other indicators.
Added he: “So after extensive deliberation, NEC noted the need for sufficient alignment between and amongst the stakeholders for the proposed reforms.
“So, 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 Assembly and then there will be consultations afterwards”.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had on October 3, asked the National Assembly to consider and pass four tax reform bills.
The proposed laws include the Nigeria tax bill, tax administration bill, and the joint revenue board establishment bill.
Reacting to the development, the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF), representing 19 northern States, collectively opposed the proposed bills, following a joint meeting with the Northern Traditional Rulers Council at the Kaduna Government House on October 28.
The Governors asked the National Assembly to reject any legislation that might harm the region’s interests, calling for equitable and fair implementation of national policies and programmes to prevent marginalisation of any geopolitical zone.
The Presidency had assured the Northern Governors that the recently proposed tax laws would not increase the number of taxes.
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, in a statement on Thursday, said the proposed laws were not proposed by Tinubu to disadvantage any part of the country as they were designed to improve lives of Nigerians and optimise existing tax frameworks.
He said the proposed reforms were intended to reduce the inefficiencies.
Onanuga said the current tax administration lacked coordination among Federal, State, and Local tax authorities, and often resulted in overlapping responsibilities, confusion, and inefficiency.
