The Federal Government of Nigeria has raised serious concern over the performance of the Value Added Tax (VAT) in the country as the lowest in the West African region.
The government while describing the development as worrisome, stressed the need for a change in policies, adding that the country’s VAT rate was less than one per cent of the Gross Domestic Product.
The Director of Tax Policy in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Basheer Abdulkadir, raised this concern on Tuesday at the opening event of a three-day workshop on the harmonisation of Nigeria’s VAT Act with ECOWAS directives.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the programme was organised by the ECOWAS Commission under the context of the implementation of the support Programme for Tax Transition in West Africa.
The PATF aimed to improve management of domestic taxation and ensure better coordination in ECOWAS and West African Economic and Monetary Union regions.
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Abdulkadir who stated that exemptions of VAT in Nigeria was not aligned with those of ECOWAS, called for the exemption of few products, goods and services from VAT, for poor households to benefit from VAT policy.
He said, ‘Our VAT performance or rate is still one of the lowest. Nigeria has a VAT of less than one per cent to the GDP and this is worrisome. Also, we have the lowest VAT within the sub-region with an average of 16 per cent, while VAT rate in Nigeria is 7.5 per cent. So we need a lot of policy changes on tax administration as we also need to come up with strategies to address some of these issues.
‘Also, the exemptions of VAT in Nigeria is not aligned with those of ECOWAS and we know that these exemption are some of the issues to do with revenue mobilisation under the VAT. We need to align our exemptions with ECOWAS directive.’
In another report, the acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Wale Adeniyi, has said, that contrary to insinuations, not all land borders shut by the Federal Government across Nigeria in 2018 have been reopened.
He pointed out that only six strategic land borders were reopened in 2021 on the orders of former President Muhammadu Buhari.