(SINL NIGERIA) The chairman of Senate committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petition, Senator Neda Imasuen (LP, Edo South) has said the aims and objectives of the tax reform bills has grossly been misunderstood by certain people.
The lawmaker argued that tax reform is long over due in Nigeria, saying there is need to rejig the country’s tax policy to address present day reality.
Senator Imasuen made this known while briefing newsmen on Monday in Abuja.
He said President Bola Tinubu has
taken certain measures some leaders would dare not take because they are afraid of the next election.
Indeed, he debunked insinuation that tax reform bills is targeted at the North, stressing that “the tax reform bill is a national issue, it is not targeted at any section of the country nor is it targeted at any sector of the economy. It is a tax regime that will address a lot of problems”.
According to Imasuen”For me what we need is dialogue, that is what is going to get us out of the misunderstanding. The aims and objectives of the bill has grossly been misunderstood by certain people, so we need a lot of time to deliberate and talk to one another to see how we can get out of it.
“But if you ask me tax reform is long over due in this country, we have to rejig our tax policy in this country to address the present day reality. The world is moving, it is not static, so the issue of tax reform is going to address all of these.
“The tax reform bill is a national issue, it is not targeted at any section of the country nor is it targeted at any sector of the economy. It is a tax regime that will address a lot of problems. We have so many loopholes in our tax law and if you look at it very critically it addresses both the rich, middle class and the poor.
“I think the controversy is about the VAT because some section of this country believes that the VAT does not favour them, but the whole idea behind all of these is that you take as much as you contribute to it. So it suppose to wake up some of these our governors”.
He urged state governors to look inward and begin to harness resources, adding that it is going to bring “what I consider as healthy competition between the states. A situation where by they say whether you contribute to it or you don’t, and just divide it by population or whatever indices, it doesn’t make sense to me personally”
He continued: “Every state in this country is rich. And I dare say apart from the oil in the South, the north has more mineral deposit than the South. And for me it is just this wealth underneath us that is left fallow and we allow people come from China to exploit it to the detriment of all Nigerians. Let governors go back and look at what is beneath their states and see how they can harness it not only for their citizens but for the whole of Nigeria”.
