Federal Government has been urged to seek for other means of generating revenue instead of going ahead with its plans to increase Value Added Tax (VAT) from 5 percent to 7. 2percent.
Speaking at a press briefing held recently in Lagos, Blake Ijezie, managing partner, Okwudili Ijezie and Co., an accounting firm, affirmed that the decision of the Federal Government to increase VAT is not appropriate at this point in time, because of the inflationary tendency that will result from it.
Ijezie, who is also a tax consultant with over two decades of experience, said that the government should increase the tax net with incentive instead of increasing the percentage of VAT.
“There are lots of people who are not in the tax net, they should be encouraged to enter with incentive; I think that should be ideal instead increasing VAT now that the economy is down”, he said.
Ijezie, however, applauded the government for expanding the number of products and services in the VAT exemption list, such as fruits, baby products, books and educational materials, rice, medical and pharmaceutical products and services, among others.
On the proposed introduction of toll gates, he advised the government to discard such proposal, adding that most Nigerian roads are not roads in the real sense of it, but death traps.
He said: “It is not appropriate to introduce toll gates when the roads are bad. Government should be more concerned about the reconstruction of bad roads. I advise that roads be concessioned to the private sector that can toll them after reconstruction”.
He commended the closure of Nigerian borders by the government, saying that such effort will further strengthen the Nigerian economy.
“If the borders are not closed, the CBN Anchor Rice initiative will fall apart. Recall that many states are now into rice cultivation and some industrialists have set up rice mills. The employment opportunities by this new rice industry are huge. If borders are left open, this will result in flooding of the country with cheaper rice from Asia and the resultant collapse of the industry.
“Most of the small arms that come into the country allegedly are smuggled via the porous land borders. These are being checkmated through this border closure. We may start witnessing drop in kidnapping and herdsmen banditry.
“What about the usual claim by NNPC that the spike in the fuel subsidy is caused by smuggling of petroleum products out of the country to neighbouring countries? If this is true, a lot of money will be saved,” Ijezie said.
He therefore, advised the masses to bear with the government on border closure and added that the challenges they are facing now due to the closure is for a while.
“Nigerians should bear with the government for now. The foreign rice we consume in this country is not as nutritious as our local rice. If the country is continuously flooded with imported products it will be difficult for us to be a producing economy unlike other advanced countries of the world.”
Ngozi Okpalakunne
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