Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State, requested the Ninth National Assembly on Monday to include value-added tax (VAT) on the Exclusive List so that the Federal Government will have legislative authority over the 7.5% consumption tax paid when goods are purchased and services are given.
El-Rufai made this statement in Abuja at the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies’ second annual “Distinguished Parliamentarian Lecture.”
He says that value-added tax (VAT) is very important for Nigeria to stay alive, especially since the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited hasn’t paid into the federation account yet this year.
The governor stated at the event that “Value Added Tax has become a major source of survival for this country because this year, the NNPC has not brought a penny to the federation account; we’ve been relying on taxes, particularly Value Added Tax.” “The fact that value-added tax is not on the exclusive list is a major source of concern for the fiscal health of the federation, but I think this National Assembly can do something about it in its remaining six months.”
El-Rufai also asked Nigeria’s National Assembly to use both state and community policing to solve the country’s many security problems.
We can all agree that Nigeria’s existing policing system is dysfunctional and ineffective, and that Nigeria is the only federation in the world to have a single, centralized policing system. “I believe that state policing may be implemented by this National Assembly,” he said.
Femi Gbajabiamila, who is the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Ahmad Lawan, who is the President of the Senate, were both at the event.
The National Assembly rejected a bill in March that sought to add VAT to the Exclusive List. A long legal battle between the Rivers State Government and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) over how to collect the state’s personal income tax (PIT) and value-added tax (VAT) led to the decision.
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers signed a measure governing VAT collection into law last year while bemoaning what he called injustice in the nation, particularly in the distribution of resources.
Wike says that Kano made N2.8 billion in VAT revenue in June 2021 and got back the same amount. Rivers State, on the other hand, made N15 billion in VAT revenue but only got N4.7 billion.
The governor of Rivers added that although Lagos State earned N46.4 billion in the same month, Lagos received N9.3 billion from the federal government. He had said, “You don’t want to believe these things exist sometimes.”
With no resolution in sight, the case has been in court for more than a year.
