FG suspends proposed five per cent tax on phone calls, data  

The Federal Government 0n Monday suspended the implementation of five percent excise duty in the digital economy sector, earlier proposed by the Minister of Finance.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, at the inauguration of a committee that will review the policy in Abuja, said he personally rejected the policy and advised President Muhammadu Buhari against it in view of the effects it would have on the digital economy.

Pantami emphasized that the introduction of excise duty in the telecommunication and information and communications technology industry would jeopardize the successes already recorded within the industry.

Pantami argued that the ICT sector is currently over-burdened with multiple taxations both at the federal and state levels.

He said that the telecommunication and ICT companies are paying over 41 taxes, noting that it would be unfair to subject them to payment of excise duty.

A presidential committee on the review of the excise duty in digital economy, inaugurated by the federal government, includes the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isah Pantami, chairman; the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, member; the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Danbatta; the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Muhammad Nami; and representatives of the telecommunication industries.