Abuja — The Senate has asked the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency, stop tax waivers and concessions already granted to corporate entities as the country was losing huge revenue to such practices.
According to the Senate, all companies should pay their taxes in full to the government coffers and then request for a rebate, if need be.
Senator Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Ogun West) led Senate Committee on Appropriations made the call, yesterday, during an interactive session on the 2024 budget with the Finance Minister, Mr. Wale Edun, and his counterpart from the Budget and Economic Planning Ministry, Atiku Bagudu.
Adeola said the committee had agreed that all taxes should be paid to the coffers of the government and then corporate entities should apply for rebates, adding, "Since this is a transition period, can we half it? The provision for these waivers should be reduced by 50 percent.
"What we are talking about here is it should go to Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Government.
"We have also agreed on the issue of waivers that, firstly all monies should be paid to the coffers of government and then people can now apply for rebate and that we say yes, we are in a transition period. Can we have it by reducing it by 50 percent since we are in transition period?
In his response, the Finance Minister, Wale Edun, said: "In trying to implement such a laudable policy, it is important to look at the practicality and decide how it can be done, whether it can be done in one fell swoop, or whether there are some obvious exceptions.
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"That has to be looked at, and the devil is in the details. But I think we are all agreeing that we should try as much as possible to move to a rebate system rather than up-front granting of waivers and other incentives even including interest incentives.
"So, if somebody is going to be given a concessional interest rate, they pay the normal interest, carry out the transaction, and then they get a rebate.
"The fiscal policy and tax reform committee is very careful about that and what you have advised today will be taken as important input into our work."
On his part, Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Mohammed Sani Musa (APC, Niger East), noted that the Federal Government should 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, Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South), noted that the government should be bold enough to stop the tax credits and waivers.
He said: "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."
