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By Seye Ojo
The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has hailed all those who worked to remove the stalemate that characterised the efforts at passing the four tax bills proposed by the Federal Government into law.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, Afenifere applauded the Federal Government for initiating the tax reform bills because of the inherent benefits.
President Bola Tinubu had had said the tax reform bills were designed with a pro-poor focus to advance national interests, improve our economic competitiveness, and attract both local and foreign investments.
But the proposed bills were trailed by controversy as Northern governors and traditional rulers kicked. However, the meeting that held in Abuja last week put an end to the impasse.
Afenifere’s statement appreciated concerns expressed by various interest groups particularly the Northern governors.
“The way the matter was resolved has a lot for us to learn from. First is for our leaders to be visionary in taking initiatives that are people-oriented as demonstrated by President Tinubu on the tax bills. Second is the need by the society to express their feelings on issues of public concern. Third is the need by the leaders to be sensitive to concerns raised by members of the public. Fourth is the need to subject issues to consultations with open minds and submit to a superior idea that would be in the best interest of the majority as demonstrated by the parties involved in the Tax Bills controversy.
“All the above played out in the resolution of the tax bill brouhaha. It is in this respect we commend President Ahmed Bola Tinubu for allowing for further consultations when issues were raised about the bills. The outcome demonstrated the benefits inherent in consultations and enhanced the President’s democratic credentials”.
The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), at its meeting on January 16, supported the continuation of the ongoing legislative process at the National Assembly that will lead to the passage of the bills.
An area of contention in one of the bills had been how proceeds from the proposed Value Added Tax (VAT) bill are to be distributed among the tiers of government. The Federal Government had proposed the sharing formula to be 20 percent on the basis of equality of states while the governors proposed 50 percent. For derivation, the government proposed 60 percent while the governors settled for 30 percent. Population, according to the government, is to be 20 percent. The governors concurred on this according to the Communique read to newsmen by the NGF Chairman, Governor Abdulrahaman Abdulrasaq of Kwara State.
Two other areas the FG and governors seemed to disagree and later agreed were on the terminal dates for some government institutions like TETfund, NASENI and NITDA as well as the plan by the FG to increase VAT from the present 7.5 per cent.
“With the consensus so achieved, it is expected that the bills will be passed soonest with the result that Nigerians, especially those on the lower rung as well as businesses, will derive immense benefits from the implementation of the bills as soon as they become Acts,” Afenifere said.
