Bauchi State Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (BACCIMA) has thrown its full support to the Governor of Bauchi, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir, over the statement he made on the controversial Tax Reform Bill introduced by the President Bola Tinubu.
According to a press statement released in Bauchi on Thursday, by the President of the Chambers, Hon. Aminu Mohammed Danmaliki, the pronouncement made by the Governor was consistent with the position taken collectively by the Governors and the traditional rulers of the North as well as some National Leaders in the country including the National Economic Council of Nigeria.
BACCIMA stated that, “We therefore agreed with Bala Mohammed’s statement, that the Tax Reform Billd which is before the National Assembly are skewed to favour one section of the country.”
According to BACCIMA, “Other leaders in the country should standup against the bills which are designed to harm the North. If not because of the pressure so far mounted, the Federal Government will not have fine-tuned its submission on the Value Added Tax (VAT) that earlier proposed a senseless position that the revenue that accrued from VAT to Federal Government should be shared with the city where the products are produced and should take the lion share leaving the consumers that pays the VAT tax with little.”
It added, “Based on global best practices, VAT is typically a consumption tax, ultimately paid by consumers. So, from an equity perspective, it makes sense for the revenue to go primarily to where consumers live and spend money.”
It stressed further, “Governor Bala Mohammed was only being patriotic by urging President Tinubu to backtrack on the tax policy reforms which could lead to anarchy. We whole heartedly supported him.”
