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VAT Now 7.5%: 10 Things You Need To Know About Buhari’s Finance Bill

Published

4 years ago

January 13, 2020

Nigerians will now pay more for VAT following the passage of Finance Bill by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nigeria’s President Muhammodu Buhari on Monday signed into law Finance Bill 2019.

Revealing this on his Twitter page, the president said: “I am pleased to announce that this morning I signed into Law the Finance Bill, 2019.”

Since signing the bill, Nigerians do not really know what the Finance Bill entails.

Here are 10 things about the bill you need to know about as compiled by TheNews:

1. The bill was submitted to a joint session of the National Assembly October. 8th along with the 2020 Budget presentation by the president.

2. The Bill’s primary purpose is to make money available for the implementation of the 2020 Budget.

3. Although since the country’s return to democracy in 1999 no such Bill’s have been used, the practice is not entirely strange, as past military leaders from time to time used it to amend laws.

4. The Bill aims at curing the deficiencies of major primary tax legislation by amending obsolete and contentious provisions.

5. It emanated from the initiatives suggested by the President Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) and the National Tax Policy Implementation Committee.

6. It seeks to promote fiscal equity and align domestic laws with global best practices.

7. It Incentivize investments in infrastructure and capital markets; and raise Government revenues.

8. It increases VAT to 7.5% from 5%

9. The 2020 Budget presentation was the first time, since the return of democracy in 1999, that a Federal Budget was accompanied by passage of a Finance Bill specially designed to support its implementation, and to create a truly enabling environment for business and investment by the private sector.

10. It’s implementation takes immediate effect.