{"id":33926,"date":"2019-08-16T12:15:53","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T11:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/?p=33926"},"modified":"2019-08-16T12:15:53","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T11:15:53","slug":"mixed-reactions-trail-planned-5-vat-on-online-purchases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/mixed-reactions-trail-planned-5-vat-on-online-purchases\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixed Reactions Trail Planned 5% VAT On Online Purchases"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mixed reactions have trailed the proposed plan by the Federal Government to slam a five per cent Value Added Tax on goods bought online.<\/p>\n

Experts told the\u00a0News Agency of Nigeria<\/em>\u00a0on Friday in Lagos, that the plan could discourage the growing digital economy, while some expressed worry that the revenue realised would not be properly utilised.<\/p>\n

NAN<\/em>\u00a0reports that Mr Babatunde Fowler, the Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Services had said that the government was considering a five per cent VAT for online purchases to raise revenue to fund the budget.<\/p>\n

Prof Sheriffdeen Tella, a Senior Economist at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, said that the online space was still growing and taxing it now would discourage transactions.<\/p>\n

Tella urged the government to explore alternative ways of funding the budget.<\/p>\n

In his opinion, Dr Chijioke Mgbame, Associate Professor, Accountancy Department, University of Benin said that slamming a five per cent VAT on online purchases was not abnormal.<\/p>\n

Mgbame, however, said that the greatest worry lay on the proper use of tax revenue for developmental purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNigerians are worried because they do not see the benefit for tax payment.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome commodities like foodstuff and children clothing should be exempted from tax,\u2019\u2019 Mgbame said.<\/p>\n

The don noted that the structure of VAT was important and the welfare of the citizens should also be considered.<\/p>

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Also, Dr Phillip Ujomu, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Federal University, Wukari, noted that the tax regime for online transaction seemed to be a move toward inclusion and accountable e- activity.<\/p>\n

Ujomu, however, said that an area of concern could be the issue of multiple taxation at the local, State and Federal levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore so, there seems to be the issue of citizens not easily seeing the positive impact of previous taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is that Nigeria is struggling with its economy and is borrowing a lot to do basic things.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, taxing the people more is an easy avenue to earn more money from peoples\u2019 labour,\u2019\u2019 Ujomu said.<\/p>\n

Also speaking, Mr Chinedu Bassey, the Programme Officer, Tax Justice and Financing for Development of the Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre said that the digital economy was not captured in the Nigerian tax net.<\/p>\n

Bassey said that it was necessary to bring them into the tax net first rather than \u201ctaxing them arbitrarily\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncentive is not wrong. Incentivise the digital economy into the tax net,\u2019\u2019 Bassey said.<\/p>\n

(NAN)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mixed reactions have trailed the proposed plan by the Federal Government to slam a five per cent Value Added Tax on goods bought online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1593,17,624],"tags":[699],"coauthors":[2391],"class_list":["post-33926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-business","category-metro","category-news","category-politics","tag-vat"],"yoast_head":"\nMixed Reactions Trail Planned 5% VAT On Online Purchases - National Wire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/mixed-reactions-trail-planned-5-vat-on-online-purchases\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mixed Reactions Trail Planned 5% VAT On Online Purchases - National Wire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mixed reactions have trailed the proposed plan by the Federal Government to slam a five per cent Value Added Tax on goods bought online.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/mixed-reactions-trail-planned-5-vat-on-online-purchases\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"National Wire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-08-16T11:15:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Inflation-declines-531x299.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"531\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"299\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Friday Ekeoba\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/\",\"name\":\"National Wire\",\"description\":\"About Nigerians, Nigerian Business and Other Stories\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/mixed-reactions-trail-planned-5-vat-on-online-purchases\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Inflation-declines-531x299.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Inflation-declines-531x299.jpg\",\"width\":531,\"height\":299,\"caption\":\"Pedestrians pass street traders in the business district of Lagos, Nigeria, on Monday, Oct. 26, 2015. 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