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Fund part of budget from VAT, expert tells FG

Published

8 years ago

December 31, 2015

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An Economist, Dr. Anthony Uwa, on Thursday called on Federal Government to fund major parts of its budget from Value Added Tax (VAT).

Uwa, who is the Head, Basic Registry and Information System in Nigeria (BRISIN) implementation, made the call in Abuja.

BRISIN is an integrated system for the collection, storage and distribution of information to support the management of the economy.

The project was initiated under the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration while the Goodluck Jonathan administration inaugurated a technical committee for its implementation.

“How will Nigeria fund budget with dwindling oil price and depreciating naira, when vital instrument like VAT that can assist government to generate revenue is not taken serious,’’ he said.

“VAT is as a tax on spending and consumption levied at every stage of a transaction, but eventually borne by the final consumer of such goods and services,’’ he said.

Uwa, who is also the Managing Director, Dermo Impex Nigeria Ltd., called on President Muhammadu Buhari to see VAT as economic regenerator.

He said that with VAT, the nation would experience surplus instead of deficiency in the economy, adding that government would only know who should pay for VAT by implementing BRISIN in Nigeria.

According to him, VAT is the only way government can recoup expenditures and re-plug it to the economy.

Uwa said that insurgency, corruption, and all sorts of criminality would continue unless the Federal Government starts to implement BRISIN in the country.