Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, has argued that President Bola Tinubu could succeed in pushing through his Tax Reform Bills, but Nigerian would be worse for the piece of legislation.
Zulum said this recently when he appeared on Channels Television Politics Today programme.
“If the president wants to use his power to pass the tax bill, he may have his way, but it has its consequences on the people.”
According to him, only Lagos and Rivers would benefit from the new tax regime it it becomes law, and not the rest of the country.
The North, particularly, would suffer the implementation hence his opposition to it, he added.
“On this tax issue, there are a lot of misconceptions. At NEC, we advised the federal government to pause for a moment in order to have deeper consultations with stakeholders.
“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 calculations that we did, only Lagos and Rivers states will benefit from this scheme. We did our own research and concluded that we would lose.
“The matter is that why are we in a rush? We advise the federal government to take a pause and remove some of the clauses in the tax bill that are inimical to the growth and development of not only northern Nigeria… south-east and south-south will be severely affected.
“We are in a democracy. We should understand the nitty-gritty of this tax regime. This is our bone of contention.”
The Tax Reform Bills, which passed its second reading in the Senate, is facing strong resistance from Nigerians, especially the North.