From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
The Spokesperson of the Senate, Senator Yemi Adaramofu, has said President Bola Tinubu’s tax reforms will not worsen the situation of Nigerians.
According to him, the tax reform bills currently before the Senate will reduce the number of taxes paid by Nigerians.
The Senator representating Ekiti South Senatorial District at the National Assembly stated this while responding to questions from newsmen
at the 2024 Ilawe-Ekiti Unity Day celebration, in Ilawe-Ekiti, at the weekend.
Speaking on the reactions of Nigerians on the tax reform bills currently before the Senate, Adaramodu said, ” Have those people seen the tax reform bills? They have not read through. The tax reform bills is going to exclude low income earners from paying tax. Are we going to say that that one is retrogressive? It is not. The tax reform bill that is going to make sure that there is no multiple taxation anymore in Nigeria, whereby federal will tax, state will tax, and local government will tax but now we are delineating it so that whatever is taxed by the federal government will.not carry any tax again by the state and then once it is taxed by the state will not carry any tax by the local government and so I don’t think there is anything that is retrogressive in the tax reform bill.
“Let Nigerians wait, we are going to conduct open debate about it which we call public hearing in the National Assembly and everybody will come there to defend his or her own view and then aggregate of those views are going to be what the National Assembly will consider in taking its position.
“The only new area that is there is about Value Added Tax(VAT) which is just based on consumption, so where we have high population and they consume a lot of commodities, definitely, that place will generate more VAT and then it is better and it is believed, and it is equitable and fair that those people that pay more VAT should enjoy more .
” Whenever our people hear tax we always think it is a burden based on anybody not even looking at because if you are a low income earner, you are a minimum wage earner and you don’t pay tax and the productive population of Nigeria is within that kind of economic circle, people that earn less, businesses that do less than N25 million naira annually, if they don’t pay tax then you are encouraging domestic productivity of our people, so definitely, people have not read through. They should sit down and read through it and then when we are conducting public hearing they should endeavour to come there and showcase their own ideas, their own feelings and contributions so that when we aggregate all these then that is what the National Assembly will put into our final decision on the tax reform bill.”
Speaking on the celebration, the federal lawmaker said, ” Today is very memorable, fantastic, eventful, stress-free, culturally embedded, and you can see the camaraderie. You can see how joyous and happy the people are today. Sons and daughters of Ilawe-Ekiti, friends of Ilawe-Ekiti, both male and female In-laws of Ilawe-Ekiti, well-wishers within and outside the country, we are here today to rejoice with Ilawe on yet another milestone of crossing another year of progress and living together in peace, in harmony, without rancour, under the traditional leadership of the Alawe of Ilawe, HRM Oba Adebanji Ajibade Alabi, and those of us who are the subjects, either political subjects, economic subjects or professional subjects, are gathered here today like we always do annually.
” Today, we want to showcase what we have culturally, and what we have done and the milestone that we have reached in developmental strides in Ilawe-Ekiti and to encourage and thank government for deeming it fit giving us in Ilawe-Ekiti so much.
“Apart from our citizens, sons and daughters who are in high places in government, somebody like me as Senator, one of the three in Ekiti State and then we have, executive members of the state excos , local government Chairmen and we have several SAs SSAs, House of Assembly members and so on. And we have captains of industry, high ranking military personnel, high ranking police personnel so today, all.of us came together under that canopy of Ilawe Unity Day to showcase what we have, what we have done, where we are, where we want to get to and it is very memorable and we are very pleased and we thank God for sparing our lives and we know that by this time next year when we are gathering together again it is going to be another song of praise to God almighty and it is going to be another welcome and warm embrace among all of us.”
Delivering his address, the Alawe of Ilawe- Ekiti, HRM Oba Adebanji Ajibade Alabi, said the gathering was to celebrate the uniqueness and unity of the ancient town.
The monarch hailed all the sons and daughters of Ilawe-Ekiti for their support since he ascended the throne and commended their commitments to the development.of the town.
“It is pertinent for me to stress that our people are always united in pushing for developmental projects and we take pleasure in telling anyone who cares to listen that we are proud indigenes of Ilawe-Ekiti. This patriotism has always been our morale booster in whatever we embark upon. We have the people and we have the tenacity of pursuing our goals
“Today’s event will go down in history as another positive step in the right direction. Before dwelling so much about why we are here, I want to say that by the grace of God, since ascending the throne of my forefathers as the Alawe of Ilawe-Ekiti, and with the support of my people, we have gotten a Federal College of Education, a Teaching Hospital Annex, a High Court, a Magistrate Court, a General Hospital and good access road to Ilawe from not less than five neighbouring towns including the state capital, Ado-Ekiti. I pray that many more will come.
” We are assembled here to celebrate our unity and raise N500 million in support for the take off of the Teaching Hospital Annex in my domain.
” The hospital in question was initially constructed several years ago through community efforts at the instance of the Catholic Church However, about three years ago, Ilawe-Ekiti people.in dire need of a standard hospital rose to the occasion and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Catholic Church, ceding the hospital fully to the community. The hospital was later made an Annex to the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti by the Federal Government. However, since then, the
hospital has been operating on skeletal basis and this has not helped in making health care delivery available to our people and other communities around us, hence today’s fundraising.”
Oba Alabi used the occasion to thank the Governor of the State, Biodun Oyebanji, for his support and commitment to the development of Ilawe-Ekiti.
Earlier in his speech, Chairman, 2024 Ilawe-Ekiti Unity Day Planning Committee, Femi Bankole, appreciated the illustrious sons and daughters of Ilawe-Ekiti home and abroad for identifying and demonstrating their unprecedented patriotism and commitments with their handsome and enormous financial contributions to make the 2024 Ilawe-Ekiti Unity Day a memorable celebration.
He said the town has witnessed tremendous achievements and development since Oba Alabi ascended the throne as the Alawe of Ilawe.
The Chairman expressed gratitude to Governor Oyebanji for the development Ilawe-Ekiti has recorded under his administration. He appealed to the Governor to do more for Ilawe-Ekiti, which he said is the third largest and most populous town in Ekiti state according to the last Population Census conducted by the National Population Commission and confirmed by the National Bureau of Statistics.
One of the indigenes of the town and the Media Adviser to Oba Alabi, High Chief Olubunmi Ajibade, said the purpose of the event was to donate a huge sum for the take off of the Teaching Hospital Annex.
” That is our character. Anytime we have anything to do in this town all of us will join one another to make it happen.”