By Gabriel Okhao
The 19 governors comprising the Northern Nigerian states have recently, through the Gombe State Governor Mohammed Yahaya, who is also the chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF), unanimously opposed and called for the rejection of the newly proposed tax model bill by the national government to the National Assembly.
The proposed bill seeks to reform the current Value Added Tax (VAT) distribution system to a derivation-based distribution system, meaning states that generate higher taxes will benefit more than states that generate less.
The governors present at the forum contended that the proposed tax model would disadvantage the North, claiming that the majority of the multinational companies operating in the country do not base their headquarters in the North. “The content of this bill is against the interests of the North and other sub-nationals,” Mr Yahaya, the chairman of the forum, disclosed.
In addition, the forum further stressed that the newly proposed system would eventually shortchange the federal allocation revenues of the northern states, calling on members of the National Assembly “to oppose any bill that can jeopardise the well-being of our people.”
Mr Yahaya, chairman of the forum and the current governor of Gombe State, a state governed by sharia law, was reported to be among the states with the least internally generated revenue, according to records from the National Bureau of Statistics 2022.