The National Economic Council (NEC) has recommended the withdrawal of the Tax reforms bill already at the National Assembly.
The NEC headed by Kashim Shettima has governors as members.
Speaking to state House Correspondents after a NEC meeting, on Thursday, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State said following the controversies that arose as a result of the bills, NEC decided to withdraw them so that stakeholders could be carried along.
Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa clarified the position of governors from the northern region, saying they were against the VAT bill because it would be unfair to the north.
Sule said that the governors were not against Bola Ahmed Tinubu, saying they brought him into power.
He said, “We can’t bring in Tinubu and then oppose him. If you look at the composition of the meeting you will see that there are people from the APC and the PDP. Some don’t even have a political party. We sat down and took the decision together.
READ MORE: Northern Govs Oppose Proposed Tax Reform Bill, Ask NASS To Reject It
“Some are traditional rulers. If you look at the law, it will be unfair to the north. By the time you say you are going to take something out of the sharing of the FAC and then say you are going to share something similar to something like that because that is the understanding we have based on the proposal. It’s going to be another 13% derivation.
“So, the states that have almost no VAT at the moment will end up actually with the shorter area of the stick. And you know, the 19 states of the north are generating very little when it comes to VAT at the moment.
“It’s very clear. I worked for some of these multi-national. I know how VAT is paid. When we were importing raw material at Dangote at Apapa port. We paid VAT first and then the finished product had VAT added to it.”
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