Anxiety As Lagos Assembly Joins Rivers’, passes VAT, Open Grazing Bills, Northern Govs Fret As More States May Join

metro

2 years ago

Anxiety may have gripped the body polity over decisions of major contributing states to the federation account through the Value Added Tax to manage their resources through promulgation of laws to collect taxes, prohibit open grazing among others.

Already, the highest contributor, Lagos State House of Assembly on Thursday passed the State’s Value Added Tax, VAT, Bill to transmit a clean copy to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for assent onto law.

The House also passed the bill that prohibits open cattle grazing in the state.

With Rivers in the Vanguard, now, Lagos and probably, the third on the scale, Delta, may follow suite soon.

But the development has sent jitters to some governors, particularly, those from the North, who are feeling threatened by the action of their southern counterparts.

Also, some analysts say, there might be much leakages and inefficiency as the states may not have the needed infrastructure to properly carry out the new assignment.

According to Taiwo Oyedele, it took FIRS over 20 years to come to the present level of collection based on available infrastructure, advising that, it might be problematic for states to jump into it simply because the courts have given judgment in their favour.

Some states, it was gathered have commenced what an analyst regards as ‘”adjustment measures’ in the event that the cases might be prolonged or the Supreme Court upholds the judgements of the lower courts.
However, the Speaker of Lagos Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, therefore, directed the Acting Clerk, Mr. Olalekan Onafeko to send the copy to Governor Sanwo-Olu for further action.

The two bills were passed after unanimous votes by the lawmakers at the sitting where they were read for the third time.
Immediately after their passage, Obasa commended his colleagues for their passion to see that the state continues grow.

“I Thank you all for this historic exercise,” Obasa said.

Recall that the House held separate public hearings on the bills on Wednesday with stakeholders expressing support.

The Gombe State Government has pleaded with the government of other States, especially those from the Southern parts of the country to reconsider their stance on the issue of Value Added Tax (VAT).

The State’s Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, Muhammad Magaji made the plea at the opening of Technical Workshop on development of the Medium-Term Sector Strategy (MTSS) for the State.

He said the other States, especially those from southern parts of the country, should put sentiment aside and become brothers’ keepers in sharing the VAT generated in their respective states.