A group, under the aegis of the Western Region Organisation (WRO), has urged the National Assembly to revert authority to collect Value Added Tax (VAT) exclusively to states, saying that such an amendment would make the Tax Reform Bills, now before the parliament for passage into law, fair and equitable in a proper federal system.
The group, a global movement dedicated to a return to regional government in Nigeria, made the call in a statement by its Executive Director, Mr Banji Ayiloge, even as it equally urged the National Assembly to amend the Tax Reform Bills for states to collect and spend VAT in their domains.
WRO, while making the call, said it frowned at the Federal Government mopping up VAT funds from the states and redistributing them, saying that such an act was against the spirit of federalism in any fashion.
“We frown at the Federal Government mopping up VAT funds from the states and redistributing them, an act that is not federalism in any fashion but unbridled state socialism, which seeks equality by creating an unequal distribution of resources, which ultimately rewards visionless leaders in some states.
“This is patently unacceptable because it lacks vision and offends the principle of fairness and justice,” the group said.
The organisation argued that reverting authority to collect VAT exclusively to states would undoubtedly ensure equity and justice in the nation’s tax system and enable states to use VAT to spur development in their respective domains.
According to the organisation, reverting VAT to states would be the best political decision since the military intervention on January 15, 1966, which dismantled the Regional Government arrangement negotiated by Nigeria’s nationalists.
“The negotiated agreement resulted in Nigeria becoming a genuine federal republic with four autonomous regions until 1966,” it said.
The group recalled that VAT was first introduced by the Ogun State Governor, Chief Bisi Onabanjo, during the Second Republic before the General Ibrahim Babangida Junta hijacked it and made it the Federal Government’s programme, saying that it was inconceivable that a Bola Tinubu administration that was supposed to be quite perceptive of these issues would succumb to blackmail and harassment to support a scheme that was patently illegal and deficient.
The group said it was time to correct the penchant of some leaders who usually cried foul whenever policies designed to end unfair advantage forced on the rest of the country by past leaders were corrected.
“Therefore, it is inconceivable that a Bola Tinubu administration that is supposed to be quite perceptive of these issues will succumb to blackmail and harassment to support a scheme that is patently illegal and deficient.
“They have gotten away with these selfish acts for far too long, and this clique of Northern leaders resisted any attempt to redirect national policies toward equitable and progressive policies, which they frowned upon.
“There must be a change of policies as southern Nigeria is tired of carrying the burden of others since the amalgamation of 1914.
“The propensity by other regions to focus more on intangible things to the detriment of the productive and forward-looking efforts of leaders from the South has resulted in the perilous state in which the nation has found itself,” the group said.
WRO, therefore, urged all regions to direct their energies to productive uses of the vast resources available in their respective regions, just as it noted that the North’s extensive land area was favourable to mechanised farming, and if properly utilised, could serve as Nigeria’s breadbasket.
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