Finance Bill: Public hearing to hold tomorrow despite dissenting voices 

Despite the negative reactions trailing the passage of the Finance Bill, the National Assembly is bent on holding a joint public hearing on the bill tomorrow.

According to Punch, many financial experts have expressed their discomfort towards the bill that could see a spike in Value Added Tax, (VAT) Company Income Tax and other taxes.

The Details: However, Solomon Adeola, Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance said the bill is not about increment in VAT but other things like the amendment of seven acts of the National Assembly as well as the removal of taxes for some sectors in the economy.

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Adeola noted that the deliberation would comprise of Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Finance. He urged concerned parties to be ready to air their views on the bill.

“The bill is targeted at reforming our tax regime and will involve amendments of seven Acts of the Parliament namely; Petroleum Profit Tax, Custom and Excise Tariff Act, Company Income Tax Act, Personal Income Tax Act, Value Added Tax, Stamp Duties Act and Capital Gain Tax.

“Studying the executive bill that was referred to my committee after passing second reading on the floor of the senate, I realised that there are a lot of ignorance and limited knowledge of the content and import of the Finance Bill.

“It is not only meant to increase revenue for the government but to also remove some conflicting and confusing aspects of our laws that had given rise to legal disputations in the past leading to huge loses of revenue for government,” he said.

What you should know: The Finance Bill was presented to the joint session of the National Assembly on October 14 2019.

The President forwarded the Finance Bill 2019 for passage into law in pursuant to Sections 58 and 59 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

The Finance Bill has four strategic objectives, in terms of achieving incremental but necessary changes to our fiscal laws. These objectives are:

• promoting fiscal equity by mitigating instances of regressive taxation;
• reforming domestic tax laws to align with global best practices;
• introducing tax incentives for investments in infrastructure and capital markets; and
• supporting Micro, Small and Medium-sized businesses in line with our Ease of Doing Business Reforms.