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The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), has applauded President Bola Tinubu for the suspension of the 0.5 percent cyber security levy recently imposed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The CBN had on May 6, 2024, issued a circular mandating all banks, mobile money operators and payment service providers to commence the implementation of the new cybersecurity levy.
Speaking at the annual tax conference held in Abuja on Tuesday, CITN President, Samuel Agbeluyi, said the federal government did well by canceling the levy.
Agbeluyi noted that while the new tax might not be totally bad, it is not the right time to implement such, given the state of the nation and the current mood of Nigerians. The CITN boss added that the country cannot be talking about cutting down on the number of taxes from 65 to units of nine, yet be introducing a new one.
“Each time the government introduces policies that are not popular, President Tinubu would reverse it, so, I’m not surprised that he has asked the CBN to slow down the introduction of the cyber levy. This is the way to go. It is not to say that any levy is entirely bad, but we tell the nation that we are reducing the multiplicity of taxes from 65 to nine and at the same time, we are introducing a new one,” he said.
“We are happy that the federal government has asked the CBN to slow down on that policy. This is one of the things we keep on saying and we keep on giving advice to the government as and when necessary. We do not necessarily need to go to the pages of newspapers. We have our communication channels. We are a conservative professional institute. So it is not enough to go and dance in the gallery and criticize the government,” he concluded.
