The Federal Government has put on hold the proposed five percent excise duty on telecommunications services.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami, announced the suspension in Abuja on Monday.
Pantami said the decision to suspend the tax was arrived at by stakeholders, asserting that the telecommunications sector already has challenges of multiple taxes.
The Minister made the announcement during the inaugural meeting of the Presidential Committee on Excise Duty for the Digital Economy Sector.
Recall that sometime last month, the federal government revealed plan to implement the five percent excise duty on telecoms services, which it had previously intimated Nigerians about.
With this policy, for every call made by telecom subscribers, they would now pay five percent of the total cost of the voice call, which would be deducted from the subscriber’s account by the telecom operator, and remit same to the government.
The five percent excise duty is an additional fee that the telecom subscriber pays, which is different from the cost of a voice call.
The federal government disclosed this yesterday at a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, organized by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mr. Zainab Ahmed was represented by an Assistant Director, Tax Policy, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Musa Umar, while the Assistant Chief Officer in the ministry, Frank Oshanipin, did the ministry’s presentation.
Zainab made the disclosure in her presentation at the stakeholders’ forum on implementation of excise duty on telecommunications services in Nigeria.
According to Oshanipin, “The five per cent excise duty has been in the Finance Act 2020 but hasn’t been implemented.”
The delay to in implementation was as a result of government’s engagement with stakeholders.
He added that payments would be made latest 21st of every month.
He further said: “The duty rate wasn’t captured in the Act because it is the responsibility of the President to fix rate on excise duties and he has fixed five percent as the duty rate for telecommunication services, which include GSM services.
“It is public knowledge that our revenue cannot run our financial obligations, so to that effect, we are to shift our attention to non-oil revenue.
“The responsibility of generating revenue to run government lies with us all,” he added.