Ulama Forum in Nigeria has expressed objection to the proposed tax reform bills currently before the National Assembly.
The clerics, in a statement in Kano on Monday insisted that the new tax reform bills, especially the Nigeria Tax Bill 2014 and the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill 3024 would accentuate income inequality in Nigeria.
In the statement signed by their convener, Aminu Inuwa Mohammed and their Secretary, Bashir Adamu Aliyu, they contended that the NTAB would transfer the largest share of Value Added Tax (VAT ) revenue from the point of consumption to the head offices of production entities.
They stated that this situation would violate the spirit of fairness and equity as production is worthless without consumption.
They further argued that VAT is a consumption tax adding that transferring the lion share of its revenue to the head offices of production entities would violate the main objective of fiscal equalisation and would promote wide income disparity with its inherent risk of social disharmony.
“Moreover, the Development Levy distribution formula proposed in the NTB 2024 seemed to be designed to phase out some agencies such as TETFUND and NITDA which provide critical infrastructure and services” they stated
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The NTB proposes a gradual decrease in these agencies from 4 % of the accessible profits of the companies in 2025 and 2026 down to 2% in 2030 when they would be phased out leaving only the Student Education Loan Fund” they lamented.
The Ulama Forum therefore recommended that the Bills be subjected to greater and wider debate by stakeholders while urging state Governors to recruit experts to x-ray the bills and identify how it would affect their people.
They also tasked the members of the National Assembly to live to the oath of office and do not allow themselves to be stampeded into the passage of the bills.
