Good or bad for subscribers?
Nigeria is going through one of her toughest economic phases since the beginning of the 21st century. Frankly, taxation or billings in any other form is not what anyone wants to hear in the news.
Well, the Federal government has said that all Telecom subscribers would have to pay a 5% tax on calls, messages, and even data starting soon. Our reaction to this was; Na wa o!
Many Nigerians haven’t heard of the directory yet because we are sure if they had, it would spark another round of hot discussions on various social media platforms.
Stakeholders in Nigeria’s Telecom sector are totally against the directive by the federal government and they hope that it will be dropped soon.
The Executive secretary of ATCON (Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria) Ajibola Olude, talking at a stakeholders forum in Abuja said that he hopes the federal government can rescind the decision and take into cognizance the hardship Nigerians are facing at this time and that the government should channel its resources to other sectors of the economy to diversify the economy. He also mentioned how ill-timed it is to pass directives like this and some of the adverse effects it can have on the economy.
Apparently, The Minister of Finance Mrs. Zainab Ahmed has said that this is a way for the federal government to raise revenue since the revenue from oil is becoming insufficient. According to her, The federal government is now shifting attention to other non-oil sectors to increase revenue. She also made mentioned some other African countries that have keyed into this revenue generation pattern.
The NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission) is on board with this directive unsurprisingly and they are pushing for the stakeholders to talk about how to start implementation as soon as possible.
#STATEAFFAIRS is a segment that gives you a quick rundown of various political and state issues as they happen in the most simple, subtle language. In this edition, we are looking at the federal government’s new 5% tax directive on all telco services.
