Finance Bill Is Not Only About VAT Increase – Senator Adeola

The Chairman Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Adeola, has stated that contrary to popular sentiment about the executive Finance Bill 2019 being about increase in Value Added Tax, the bill is a composite bill seeking amendment  in seven Acts of the National Assembly with removal of taxes for some sectors in the economy.

Speaking on the heels of a Joint Public Hearing by the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Finance on the Finance Bill slated for Tuesday after its referral to the Finance Committee, Senator Adeola stated that the bill targeted at reforming our tax regime will involve amendments of seven Acts of the Parliament namely; Petroleum Profit Tax, Custom and Excise Tariff Act, Company Income Tax Act, Personal Income Tax Act, Value Added Tax, Stamp Duties Act and Capital Gain Tax.

“Studying the executive bill, which was referred to my Committee after passing second reading on the floor of the senate, I realised that there are lot of ignorance and limited knowledge of the content and import of the Finance Bill targeted at not only increase in revenue for the government but removing some conflicting and confusing aspects of our laws that had given rise to legal disputations in the past leading to huge loses of revenue for government” he stated.

Senator Adeola said the public hearing will serve to enlighten the people on the import of the bill as well as allow interested parties to express their views on the amendments to the various laws governing different aspects of our tax legislations and the need to clarify grey and conflicting clauses in the laws.

“Beyond the 2.5% increase in the VAT, there are equally changes in the Value Added Tax Act 2004 that increase the number of items exempted from VAT to the extent that Nigeria may have the highest number of such exemptions in Africa and beyond. Also the amendment of the Company Income Tax Act if passed will favour Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) by reduction in applicable taxes with first four years robust incentives” Senator Adeola stated.

The chairman of the Senate Committee argued that there is need for our tax laws to take cognizance of the new digital economy that was not in place when they were passed as well as tax foreign based companies w