Sequel to reports making the rounds that the federal government is planning a significant increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) in the country, a Chartered Accountant and a retired Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance in Plateau State, Isaac Wadak, said any increase in VAT will erode the gains that will be made from 30,000 minimum wage rise.<\/p>\n
He said instead of increasing the VAT, government should work to ensure they get more people to pay VAT, and leave the current rate as it is.<\/p>\n
Wadak who was a Senatorial aspirant in the race for Plateau Central Senatorial seat disclosed this in an exclusive interview with DAILYPOST in Jos, the Plateau State Capital.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cThe argument that VAT increase will not affect VAT exempted items such as basic food items, medical and pharmaceutical products, books and educational materials among others, doesn\u2019t hold water.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor instance, a woman who sells basic food items will definitely increase her prices if the price of her body cream, toiletries among others increases as a result of VAT increase.<\/p>\n
According to him, \u201cThe arguments that other countries\u2019 VAT rate is higher than Nigeria does not also hold water. Those countries whose VAT rates are higher than Nigeria have low cost of production.<\/p>\n
The PDP chieftain maintained that, \u201cNigeria is one of the countries in the world that has very high cost of production due to huge infrastructural deficits.<\/p>\n
On the way forward, Wadak said, \u201cGovernment should ensure it gets more people to pay VAT.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeave the VAT rate as it is now; because any increase will erode the gains made from 30,000 minimum wage increase\u201d, he stressed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sequel to reports making the rounds that the federal government is planning a significant increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) in the country, a Chartered Accountant and a retired Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance in Plateau State, Isaac Wadak, said any increase in VAT will erode the gains that will be made from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":7543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,15],"tags":[325,204,543,249,415,197],"class_list":["post-7537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-education","tag-government","tag-medicine","tag-minimum-wage","tag-production","tag-states"],"yoast_head":"\n