Senate asks Nigerian govt to stop tax waivers for companies

The Senate Committee on Appropriations on Wednesday urged the Federal Government to stop tax waivers and concessions already granted to corporate organisations in the country.

The committee’s chairman, Solomon Adeola, stated this during an interactive session on the 2024 budget with the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, and his Budget and Economic Planning counterpart, Atiku Bagudu, in Abuja.

He was reacting to Edun’s remark on the loss of about N3 trillion to tax waivers by the government this year.

The chairman lamented the loss of huge revenue to tax waivers and incentives granted to the entities on the country’s finances.

In his contribution, Senator Mohammed Sani Musa, urged the federal government to adopt the system of withholding taxes for tax waivers.

He said: “If you look at tax credits and the waivers, why can’t we adopt a system like what we are doing with withholding taxes? Withholding taxes is going into a fund. After a while, if you can prove that you have paid all your taxes, they pay you your rebate back. So, why can’t we do the same?”

On his part, the Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, charged the government to take a courageous step on the matter.

“I think we should be bold enough just like the president is very bold. I still want to use this opportunity to commend him for his speech to say there is no more fuel subsidy.

“Some people are taking advantage unnecessarily of Nigerians and benefiting to the detriment of Nigerians. We talk about tax credits; it is an expenditure and it should go through the National Assembly. There are no two ways about that.

“Look at these illegalities, remove them, and then let us move ahead or this country would be drained by some loopholes.”

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