Groups Lambast Masari Over VAT Comment, Says Irresponsible, Frivolous

The Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, was on Sunday heavily criticised for dismissing moves by Lagos and Rivers states to start collecting the Value Added Tax directly.

Groups, including the Pan Niger Delta Forum, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo and civil rights groups, berated Masari over his comment on VAT.

The  Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt had last month held that Rivers State had the constitutional right to collect VAT within its territory.

But the Court of Appeal in its ruling on the appeal filed by the FIRS on September 10 ordered a stay of execution of the judgment of the Federal High Court.

On the same day, the Lagos State Government,  which had also made its own VAT law, asked the appeal court to join it as co-defendants in the appeal filed by the FIRS.

Besides Lagos and Rivers states, Ogun State is in the process of making its own VAT law.

Describing the moves as a joke, Masari, in an interview, stated, “VAT serves them and us. We provide the bulk of the market because without the rest of the states, what is Lagos or Rivers?

But in its reaction, PANDEF described comments by  Masari as irresponsible.

The National Publicity Secretary of PANDEF, Ken Robinson stated this while speaking to Punch.

Robinson wondered if Masari was also concerned with the business hazards that took place in Lagos and Rivers which he mentioned.

“Did he (Masari) consider the businesses that take place and the business hazards in Lagos and Rivers that had chaotic traffic and the weight on the social amenities in these states?

“Did he not consider that because of the number of people in these states, there is also a burden on the states to meet the social needs of the people, to meet security needs of the people.

“The truth is that because Nigeria for long has been operating a faulty system, they are used to this faulty system and they are finding it difficult to come to reality that it cannot continue like this forever,” the PANDEF spokesman said.

While stating that PANDEF completely backed states collection of VAT, he stated that “For us the only compromise is to say that the derivation is presently 20 per cent. It should move up to at least 50 per cent.

“A situation where some states generate very little and get billions of naira every month from other states, while the states that are generating so much get reduced sum makes no sense at all.”

“They share our oil money. They take 80 per cent of our oil and give us 13 per cent. They also collect VAT and share it the same way.

“And because of this free money, states have become lazy. They have failed to look internally to generate revenue.”

On its part, the  Middle Belt Forum lauded moves by some states to collect VAT.

The National President of the Forum, Dr Bitrus Pogu  who described the development as part of the much- talked-about restructuring, added that resorting to ethnic sentiment would not stop the clamour  for Nigeria’s restructuring.

The Middle Belt President, described Masari’s statement as “frivolous“.

“With what Rivers, Lagos  and other states are doing about the issue of VAT collection, I believe that our laws are being challenged and the result will make Nigeria better, he told Punch.

“The restructuring process in Nigeria is already ongoing and for the Governor (Masari ) to make such a statement, it is obvious he did not take into consideration the fact that the citizenship and indigenship question in Nigeria has not been resolved. If the governor is talking about citizens of Nigeria versus indigenes of a particular place, then he needs to get clarification on those issues.

“As far as we are concerned, true federalism is taking shape. When Kano is destroying alcohol, didn’t they know that  VAT is also coming through alcohol sales? These are some of the issues that have to be addressed.”

Fiscal federalism must eventually come, Ohanaeze replies Masari

Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Igbo apex socio-cultural organization,  expressed its support for plans by states to collect VAT.

The spokesman for the apex Igbo body, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, said that Nigeria’s federal system made states lazy, Punch reports.

He said it would be difficult to determine whether northerners were more in the South than southerners in the North.

“I am sure that people move to find means of livelihood here and there. From Benue, Sokoto, Maiduguri and so on, you will find a lot of Igbo, Yoruba and a lot of people from the North. So no person can claim that they have more of their people down here.

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo is in favour of what we call fiscal federalism, that is, that the state should have authority over its revenue and expenditure profile and pay royalty to the centre.”