A bill seeking to raise value added tax (VAT) to 7.5% from 5 per cent
has passed second reading at the senate but not without some drama.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved an increase in VAT in September.
The bill entitled: ‘Nigeria tax and fiscal law, 2019’, is sponsored by
Yahaya Abdullahi, senate majority leader.
After Abdullahi moved a motion for the commencement of debate on the
bill and read his lead paper, some senators complained that they did
not know what the proposed legislation entails because they did not
have copies of it.
Binos Yaroe, senator representing Adamawa south, raising a point of
order, drew the attention of Senate President Ahmad Lawan to the fact
that they did not have copies of the bill.
Yaroe said according to senate rules, every senator is meant to have
copies of it.
“Our rules say that printed copies of the bill shall as soon as
possible be sent to every senator,” he said.
“We are at the stage of the second reading of this bill. I don’t know
for others but I have not received the bill, I don’t know how we can
debate a bill that we have not received.”
Lawan noted his point but said the debate on it will still go on.
“We are at this point going to debate the general principles of the
bill and in line with our tradition, convention here, even the
appropriations bill that we debate, we don’t have the bill normally,”
he said.
Betty Apiafi, senator representing Rivers west, also raised the same
concern, but the senate president said: “When the senate committee on
finance reports this, the bill will be made available and we can
compare with what we are amending.”
He then ruled her out of order.
Earlier, the senate leader said the bill is seeking five objectives.
“The bill has five strategic objectives, the first one is to promote
fiscal equity by mitigating instances of regressive taxation. The
second one is to reform domestic tax laws to align with global best
practices,” Yahaya said.
“The third is to introduce tax incentives for investment in
infrastructure. The fourth objective is to support ongoing ease of
doing business reforms and the fifth objective is to raise revenues
for government including proposal to increase the value added tax
(VAT) from 5% to 7.5%.”
