Tax reform bills should not be politicised – TUC president

The President of the Trade Union Congress, Festus Osifo, has urged Nigerians not to politicise the controversial tax reform bills.

Osifo also appealed to Nigerians not to introduce tribal or religious sentiments into debates surrounding the provisions of the bills, noting that the bills were good but had to undergo some tweaking to benefit the larger section of the citizenry.

The TUC President made the statement when he appeared on a Channels Television programme,
Politics Today, on Thursday evening.

“Those undertones are clearly there. It started from the Northern Governors Forum, metamorphosed into the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and it went into the National Economic Council.

“At this stage of our development, we should be wary. We shouldn’t politicise everything. Bringing in tribal talks or ethnicity, I don’t think this is right,” he said.

Osifo also addressed the debate on the deductions of Value Added Tax, adding that such concerns should instead be compiled and sent to the National Assembly.

He urged the NASS to listen to the concerns of Nigerians on the bills and invite experts to debate its provisions and make recommendations

“When a reform is being made, we are used to certain things. For example, I’ve listened to the debate on the VAT. Before now, there was a means of collecting the VAT, whereby where the headquarters of a company is stationed is where they collect it from. But as of today, they want to collect it from source”.

“So the first question is that, hope we have the requisite skills and the requisite knowledge and the requisite tools to be able to determine that source so that nobody will be shortchanged? When we are used to a particular system and change is coming, there is always some level of resentment, and there’s always some level of debate. So that is actually what is happening.

“At the end of the day, what I think is that these points should be articulated and it should be taken to the National Assembly. But we fear that the National Assembly should listen to Nigerians. The National Assembly should bring in other experts, and not just depend on the experts that the Executive have put in place. They should bring in experts both locally and internationally that would be able to dissect this and come up with what will stand the test of time”, he said.