Governors are on the same page with the Federal Government on the Tax Reform Bills, Nasarawa State helmsman Abdullahi Sule said yesterday.
According to him, the four Tax Reform Bills passed on March 18 by the House of Representatives contain the adjustments made to the original Bills by the governors.
Sule, along with some other governors, especially from the North, kicked against sections of the Bills as presented by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for Federal lawmakers’ consideration and passage.
They picked holes in the proposed gradual increase of Value Added Tax (VAT) from 7.5 per cent to 10 per cent and finally 15 per cent within five years.
Speaking at the Veritas media event in Abuja, Sule praised President Tinubu for his listening ears.
“He called us to a meeting and my colleagues mandated me to speak on their behalf and listed our misgivings.”
“The President asked us to send our proposal to amend the section on VAT and we did,” he said.
Sule added that the adjustment made by the governors is exactly what is in the Bills passed by the House of Representatives.
The governors were up in arms against the Bills and, after a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, requested the President to withdraw them from the National Assembly.
But the President stuck to his guns.
He turned down their advice and asked them to take their grouse about the Bills to the public hearing.
The Senate will consider and pass the Bills after its recess, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele said yesterday.
He also raised the hope that the Constitution amendment would be carried out by the 10th Senate.
He described the tax reform bills “as game changers that will redefine and transform our country’s fiscal environment significantly”.
“When enacted, the bills will address inequality and injustice that characterise our tax system,” the Senator said.
Under the proposed tax regime, Bamidele noted that employees earning N1,000,000 or below per annum “will be completely relieved of the tax burden”.
