- Safiu Kehinde
Borno state governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum, has reaffirmed his stand against the controversial tax reform bills, stressing that the North and others regions will be shortchanged if passed into law.
Zulum made the reaffirmation in an interview on Channels TV Sunday Politics programme.
The Borno governor held that there is a lot of misconceptions around the tax bills.
He queried the urgency attached to the bills’ implementation while reinstating the request for more time from the Federal Government.
According to the Zulum, the National Executive Council had in their last meeting urged the FG to slow down for deeper consultation as the provisions of the bills, particularly the sharing of Value Added Tax by derivation, are not in favour of most regions- especially the north.
He claimed that only Lagos will benefit from the implementation of the bill with its current provisions.
His words; “On this tax issue, there is a lot of misconception. During the NEC meeting we advised Federal Government to pause for a moment in order to have deeper consultation with stakeholders.
“That was a statement. Then later on, people turned it upside-down. I want you to believe that consultation is central to democracy.
“This is a beggar’s belief that in a democratic setting, we are begging to right to consult or to be consulted. We haven’t said anything but we felt that the VAT provision in the tax law which clearly stated that VAT allocation should be based on derivation.
“The proposed bill further stated that 60 percent of the VAT tax will be shared based on derivation.
“I’m not an economist, but based on the calculation that we did, only Lagos State and Rivers State will benefit from this scheme.
“However, we have had series of consultations with FIRS team. I had a meeting with the governor of Lagos state. He told me that look Prof, Lagos will lose a lot if this is implemented .
“The fact of the matter is that why are we in rush? We advised the Federal Government to first expunge some of the clauses in the tax bill that are enemical to the growth and development of not only Northern Nigeria. Southeast will be severely affected. All South will be affected. Even in the Southwest, only Lagos will benefit from this from our own observation.
“However, be it as it may be, they said no. This is not right. All what we are saying is that give us time. Why are we in rush?
“Let us first do deeper consultation because we are in a democracy. So that we can understand the nitty-gritty of this tax regime before passing it into law. This is our bone of contention. And then people are saying Professor Zulum is against the Presidency.
“This is a democratic setting unless we want to us to do garrison democracy. What we told them is that let us take time and evaluate the efficacy of the tax systems before we pass it into law.
“I’m not withdrawing my statement; to my own observations, if this tax bill is passed, the North, South East, South South, and South West will all be shortchanged.”