The Federal Government via the Minister for Budget and Planning has revealed that they have no intention to increase taxes. This was part of the decision reached by the National Economic Council hosted by the Vice President In Abuja.
Senator Udo Udoma on quote
Government will not impose additional taxes on individual and corporate bodies to avoid additional burden on Nigerians.
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We expect about 20% increase in VAT collection, which is conservative in terms of our revenue projections. We are expecting much more than that.
“With reference to the budget, one thing we are determined not to do is to cut any of those capital projects, because we need them to stimulate the economy.
“We have to be imaginative, but it is important not to touch the capital portion because that is important to revitalise the economy to get our people back to work, to get growth moving again so that we can get the 4% growth.”
We are going to work with the National Assembly to see how we can get savings. One of the areas we are looking at is our cash call elements.
“The minister of state for petroleum is looking at how we can cut our cash call elements, which is about N1trillion, by innovative financing. So he is discussing with some oil companies and looking for some innovative financing which might pick up some of the financing so that we reduce our financial output and contribution by the federal government; that will be a major saving which can be used to plug the gap particularly with falling oil prices.”
This will come as relief to businesses both local and foreign who have anticipated a tax increase particularly in value added tax. There were indications that there the government might be mulling tax increases following the visit of the IMF CEO.
