Tinubu’s tax committee suspends levies on petty traders

The Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reform Committee has recommended the suspension of levies against petty traders.

The committee’s chairman, Taiwo Oyedele, on Channels TV, said the recommendation was made to reduce the burden on small businesses.

Oyedele also noted that the government collected 98% of its revenue from less than 10 taxes, saying it was unnecessary to have plethora of taxes that create problems for people and fund criminals.

He said, “What we are trying to do is to say while we can not solve these problems in 30 days or even 60 days, so I was at NEC at their last meeting and the governors were actually very excited with that recommendation.

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“One of it is we agreed that we are suspending those taxes, bicycle taxes, wheelbarrow taxes and those things.

“And by the way when we look at the data, we are making about 98% of our revenue across the levels of government combined from less than 10 taxes, why do we have to have 200 others creating problems for everyone and funding criminals, in my view?

“So we said to them (governors), can you please agree with us, because if we decide to suspend the tax, nobody can take us to court. So what Nigerians should expect particularly if you are at the bottom of ladder or a small business owner, there is a lot of relief as some those taxes should go away.”

When asked if the committee was facing resistance, Oyedele acknowledged that some powerful individuals were already frustrating their work.

“Because you are trying to reset certain things that will be different from status quo and there are people who are benefiting from the status quo, they will fight back and these are very powerful people with lots of resources. We’ve seen that already, I won’t go to the details but we think that at the end of the day our collective will will help us push through,” he said.