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Senate, Customs CG reject N6 trn tax waiver proposal in 2023 budget
.Nigeria only nation that doesn’t collect telecom tax, says Hameed Ali
AdeKunle Adesuji, Abuja
Senate on Tuesday, rejected proposal of N6 trillion in 2023 budget for tax waivers, saying that it should be slashed by 50 percent , considering the N12.41 trillion deficit in the proposed 2023 budget.
Federal government had proposed an aggregate expenditure of N19.76 trillion for the 2023 fiscal year.
Chairman of Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Olamilekan who expressed disatisfaction with N6 trillion tax waivers proposal at the opening of a five -day interactive session with heads of revenue generating agencies on the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Papers in Abuja, also solicited for the review of Tax Credit, due to failure of some organisations to implement ithe approval.
Adeola: said, “we have to review pioneer legislations of companies in the last five year’s tax credit because of paucity of fund.
“About 6 trillion was provided as waiver for companies in the 2022 budget , which was designed to give incentives to business , but we should reduce it by 50 per cent ,I don’t think we can accommodate that.
“We need to reduce the 6 trillion waiver by 50 per cent.”
Speaking earlier on the tax waivers , the Controller General of Customs, Hammed Ali said that it is Federal government stop the issuance of tax waivers lamenting that Billions of Naira are given as tax waivers.
On Telecommunications Tax, Custom CG said “it is only in Nigeria that does not pay telecommunications in the world.” Demanding for the implementation of Telecommunications Tax in the 2023 .
Adeola while commenting on budget defici kicked against the projected N12.41 Trillion in the 2023 budget as proposed the executive arm of government to finance the 2023 budget.
He also said that the alarming projection of “no provision for treasury-funded MDAs’ capital projectsin 2023”. He added that the scenario is unacceptable and we must find ways to drastically reduce the deficit humongous figure.
According to him ” it is apparent that the borrowing trends cannot be allowed to continue unchecked and conscious efforts must be made to reduce budget deficits.
” Achieving these goals requires us to look inward towards increased revenue generation, blocking of leakages and restraints on what are generally frivolous expenditures by MDAs, particularly the Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs)” Adeola said.
While speaking at the interactive session, on the issue of debt, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed said, “we are concerned and debt serving is consuming a huge revenue and hence we need to improve our revenue and reduce leakages inherent in our system.
“One of the ways to increase our revenue, is to strengthen our monetary generating enterprises and to provide real sanctions to defaulters based on the fiscal responsibility act.
“On issue of issuing tax credit to companies: Tax credit are issued when Companies only when Companies construct projects and the projects are certified and issued certificate by the Federal ministry of works.
“Government only announced the companies that expressed interest to construct some roads and Mr President has given them go ahead to embark the process.The procedure is that they need to negotiate the bill of quantities and the design of the project with federal ministry of works.”
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