Showdown: Northern Governors Oppose Southern Colleagues On Power Shift, VAT

Governors of the 19 northern states have described as unconstitutional, the position of their Southern counterparts that the country’s next President must come from their region just as they dismissed the position of the Southern governors on Value Added Tax, VAT.

Rising from an emergency meeting with northern traditional rulers at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, Kaduna, on Monday, the Northern Governors Forum said though some Northern States Governors had earlier expressed views for a power-shift to three Geo-Political Zone in the South, with a view to promoting unity and peace in the nation, the statement by the Southern Governors Forum that the Presidency must go to the South is unacceptable.

Reading from the resolutions of the meeting, Plateau State Governor and Chairman of the Forum, Simon Bako Lalong, said: “The statement is quite contradictory with the provision of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) as amended that the elected President shall secure at least 25 percent of the votes cast in 2/3 states of the federation. In the case of run-up simple majority win the election.”

Also reacting to the position of the Southern governors that VAT should be collected by the states, Lalong said:

“If every State enacted its own VAT Law, multiple taxation will result in increases of prices of goods and services and collapse in interstate trade. VAT is not a production tax like excise, but terminal tax which is paid by the ultimate consumer.”

“Another confusion is ignoring observation above and its ‘overall effect.’ The reason Lagos accounts for our 50% VAT collection is because most of the telecommunication companies, banks, manufacturing and other trading activities have their headquarters in Lagos, with the resultant and wrongful attribution of VAT.”

He, however, said as responsible leaders, while the Forum is constrained by the fact that the matter is sub judice, it must, for the sake of educating the public, state that the judgement of the Port Harcourt Court calls to question the constitutionality of “VAT, withholding tax, education tax, Niger Delta Development Commission, National Information Technology Development Agency, 13% derivation, National Economic Development Council and many other currently levied and collected by the Federal Government of Nigeria, Federal Inlands Revenue Service.”

He said though Rivers and Lagos State Government had enacted their own VAT laws, unless the Supreme Court pronounces judgement on the substantive matter between Rivers State and Federal Government, the matter is sub judice and Northern States Governors Forum would respect this.

Source: Daily Turst

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