Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national
planning, says the federal government is considering political paths to resolve
the ongoing value-added tax (VAT) tussle.
Ahmed said this during an interview on Channels Television
on Friday.
In the last few months, the FIRS and some state governments
engaged in a legal tussle over the jurisdiction of VAT collection.
Rivers and Lagos state governments enacted laws and called
for decentralisation of VAT collection, while some states want centralised
collection.
The legal tussle followed the judgment of the federal high
court in Port Harcourt, which restrained the FIRS from collecting VAT and
personal income tax (PIT) in Rivers state.
At the lower court, the FIRS had appealed for a stay of
execution, but the court dismissed it on the basis that it would “negate the
principle of equity”.
Consequently, FIRS went to the court of appeal — the court
ordered both Rivers and Lagos states to maintain status quo over the collection
of VAT until the determination of the suit.
Not satisfied with the injunction, the Rivers state
government filed the matter before the supreme court. No date has been fixed
for the hearing of the case at the apex court.
Speaking during the interview, the finance minister said the
federal government was seeking a positive political solution to the issue.
“I have to do this carefully because they are issues in
court, and I am not supposed to be talking about issues in court,” she said.
“But, I do hope that this problem can be solved by sitting
on the table, not on the pages of newspapers, not disagreements in court
because it is possible to solve it on the table.”
“There’s a lot of
effort going on right now. I said I didn’t want to discuss it because it is in
court so I have to be careful.
“Yes, there will be a positive political solution. We are
working towards an out-of-court solution.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com