Lagos and Rivers are the only states with the chance of benefitting from President Bola Tinubu’s tax reform bills, Borno state governor, Babagana Zulum has alleged.
Zulum, who made the disclosure while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, said the position was based on research and calculations by northern governors.
He also explained why the northern governors advised President Tinubu to hold on before pushing the controversial bills.
“On this tax issue, there are a lot of misconceptions. We felt that the VAT provision in the tax law. 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,” Zulum said.
“Why are we in a rush? We advised the Federal Government to take a pause and expunge some of the clauses that are inimical to Northern Nigeria.
“What we are saying is that give more time, let us do a deeper consultation to understand the nitty-gritty of this tax regime before passing it into law.”
Zulum explained that if the bill scales through the National Assembly, states would be shortchanged as only Lagos State would be the main beneficiary of the policy.
In October, President Tinubu asked the National Assembly to assent to pass the bills into law.
The bills are the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Bill, 2024 -SB.583; The Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) BILL, 2024- SB.584; The Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, 2024-SB.585; and the Nigeria Tax Bill, 2024 – SB.586.
The tax reform bills passed a second reading in the Senate last week.
Governor Zulum argued that contrary to some insinuations in some quarters, the northern governors are not against President Tinubu’s administration.
Zulum recalled that before the 2023 general election, he was one of the few governors who insisted that power must be rotated to the south.
With Channels Television report
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