₦airaland Forum

The National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (NACCIMA) has called on President Bola Tinubu’s administration to take decisive steps toward tax reform, including reducing corporate taxes to 19% and pegging Value Added Tax (VAT) at 7.5%.

This is contained in a statement signed by the association’s National President, Dele Kelvin Oye.

The current Tax Reforms bills before the National Assembly propose a progressive increase in VAT rates from 10% in 2025 to 12.5% (2026–2029) and 15% from 2030 onward.

According to NACCIMA, the reduction of corporate and value-added taxes will foster economic growth and enhance government revenue.

“We believe corporate taxes should be further reduced to 19% and VAT pegged at 7.5%. We believe this will grow the economy and result in higher tax revenues for the government. As a caveat to protect government revenues, each tax payer must not pay less than the preceding tax year.”

Oye lamented the ongoing disconnect between federal and state governments, which has manifested through public disagreements over revenue sharing. He noted that these engagements often played out in the media, overlooking the fundamental interests of taxpayers and the public.

“The current media engagement between federal and state governments in newspaper and press releases only further confirms the disconnect described above,” Oye remarked. “The beneficiary parties receiving taxpayer funds engage each other on how to secure a larger portion of taxpayer funds without consideration for the public or taxpayer interest.”

Other sectors need reforms too. Oye emphasized that sectors like telecommunications, which contribute significantly to government revenues, require targeted reforms to unlock further growth and revenue potential.

The statement also called for greater inclusion of the private sector in tax reform discussions with stakeholders in areas such as aviation, telecommunications, manufacturers, and operators in Free Trade Zones. Oye criticized the existing approach of using committees that “lecture taxpayers” without yielding positive outcomes.

According to NACCIMA, “Significant tax payers like the telecommunications sector who require reforms; which will result in increased tax revenues should not be ignored. There must be real dialogue with genuine concessions to be made by all parties. The private sector (Aviation, Telecommunications, manufacturers, Free Trade Zones, and other stakeholders must be engaged) in written communication. Committees that come to lecture tax payers are not giving positive outcomes. For better coordination, the outcome of these engagements can be forwarded to the National Assembly through the office of the ATTORNEY GENERAL as directed by Mr President.”

Zooposki:
After collecting TAX from personal income, the government will still dip their fingers to collect VAT, Stamp Duty etc. How fair is that?

chisomkachy:
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s first supplementary budget includes a fleet of SUVs for himself and his wife, a presidential yacht and the renovation of his villa amid a cost-of-living crisis for some of the poorest people in the world.

The proposal — which seeks additional funding beyond the annual budget approved by Tinubu’s predecessor — comes as the government asks Nigerians to persevere through pain caused in part by a raft of economic reforms ushered in by the new president. Africa’s most populous country faces rampant unemployment, soaring food prices and a plummeting currency.

Federal lawmakers approved the president’s request for extra spending on Thursday, but eliminated the provision of 5 billion naira ($6.01 million) to buy a presidential yacht. Instead, they doubled the allocation to a student loan fund to 10 billion naira, according Abubakar Bichi, chairman of an appropriations committee in the House of Representatives.

The lawmakers approved 1.5 billion-naira proposed to purchase SUVs for the office of First Lady Oluremi Tinubu — an amount larger than that allocated to many individual federal colleges. The supplementary budget also proposes almost 6 billion naira to purchase SUVs for the presidency — more than the amount initially allocated to fund a student loan program for poor families.


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-02/nigeria-budgets-for-suvs-and-yachts-amid-economic-hardship

Zooposki:
After collecting TAX from personal income, the government will still dip their fingers to collect VAT, Stamp Duty etc. How fair is that?

Ojuntana:
https://nairametrics.com/2025/01/06/naccima-urges-tinubu-to-slash-corporate-taxes-to-19-vat-to-7-5/

Medici777:
The proposed tax reform bill is going to be passed whether we like it or not and nothing will happen. It’s going to hit harder than we think.

helinues:
Nosimo, we don hear

Ibehchizzy:
God go Pns you

Ojuntana:
This is the real sector of the economy giving their take on the tax reforms.

It seems they were not carried along as well contrary to what Taiwo Oyedele claimed. It is also concerning that they are accusing the Oyedele committee of "lecturing" them instead of a dialogue where ideas are shared and resolutions reached.

Their recommendation is contradictory to the proposals in the tax bills and as I've recently maintained, while everyone is fixated on VAT sharing, ordinary people who should be concerned about the effect of VAT increase on the economy are joining politicians to fight north vs south nonsense on a subject they know next to nothing about.

Note that while the CIT is to be reduced for large corporations from 30% to 25%, medium sized companies with turnover of between 25m to 100m will see CIT increase from 20% to 25%.

This is not good for medium businesses. If the large corporations are asking for further reduction of CIT to 19%, how much more the medium businesses?

The tax bills need to be put up for wider consultation as it seems the most critical stakeholders in taxes which are Labour (employees) and corporate outfits (employers) are not on board with it.

The biggest noise seems to be coming from the strangest quarters though.

grandstar:
I would say it should be reduced to flat 15% for all companies.

Ojuntana:
15% CIT for small businesses is too much

They are better off at 0

grandstar:
The government needs revenue.

This isn't the Red Cross.

15% is very good across board. It would encourage a lot of investment into the country.