The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) have opposed the Federal Government’s intention to introduce new taxes to improve revenue generation to fund the proposed 2019 budget.
The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) comprising over 40 political parties is also against the move.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday presented a proposed N8.83tn budget for 2019, with N6.97tn projected as revenue.
Finance minister Zainab Ahmed said on Friday in Abuja that the government had resolved to mobilise more domestic revenue to enable it fund the 2019 budget.
But stakeholders in the political and economic sectors on Friday faulted the move to impose more taxes on Nigerians.
The CUPP described the plan as a bad economic policy.
The coalition’s first national spokesperson Imo Ugochinyere said in an interview that the decision was a clear indication that Mr Buhari no longer had an idea of how to run the country.
“So why do they need to raise taxes when the revenue they said they had raised, including the recovery they said the EFCC had made and the leakages they said they had blocked, give us over N20tn?,”
PDP spokesperson Kola Ologbondiyan said: “The party rejects any tax increase for Nigerians because it is proportional to increase in the pain, anguish, hunger and suffering of the people.”
LCCI Director-General Muda Yusuf noted that the government had a major challenge with funding “but the way to boost revenue is not to increase taxes or increase the tax rate; the way forward is to expand the capacity of the economy to pay more taxes.”
Economist and MAN director Ambrose Oruche suggested that the government should expand its tax net to include the people in the informal sector not paying taxes instead of overburdening those paying.
