As the National Assembly vote in favour of states collecting Value Added Tax, Gombe State Government has raised an issue of who collects VAT on airtime.
The state is one of those that oppose passing the responsibility to states, asking the Federal Government to continue to collect it.
Lagos, Rivers and Akwa Ibom are among the fierce proponents of the change.
Reacting to the NASS’ decision, Gombe’s Commissioner of Information, Julius Ishaya, said, “For instance VAT is value added tax on goods and services. If you buy airtime, instead of it being done at the organisation’s head office, it is meant for them to separate it to know cards used around the Gombe area and remit the VAT to the state unlike what was obtained in the recent past.
“That is the complicated issue, there is more than meets the eye but it is not a simple thing as people expect. We will increase our productivity and other economic activities to make sure we attract value addition.”
“I think the lawmakers have done well. If they have said now that the states have the right to collect VAT, it is good because that has been the question that the judiciary has been asked to answer, and if the Lagos State Government and some other state governments are pushing for this, at the National Assembly it is wisdom.
His Lagos counterpart, Gbenga Omotoso, however, believes it is the right step in the right direction: “It is the right way to go. I think they deserve kudos; they deserve applause because in my own view, it is a ‘no victor, no vanquished’ situation. It is good for democracy. It is a victory for the rule of law. It is a victory for equity, for justice. It is a victory for what is right as against what is not right.”
