Finance Minister pushes for VAT increase

Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has urged the incoming administration to increase the Value Added Tax (VAT) when it assumed office.

She made the call during a courtesy visit to the headquarters of Voice Of Nigeria (VON) in Abuja.

According to the minister, an increment from the current 7.5 percent to 10 percent would stimulate the country’s economic growth.

Ahmed said: “VAT was one of the ways to increase revenue and we still have to increase VAT because, at 7.5 per cent Nigeria has the lowest VAT rate in the world, not in Africa, in the world.

“In Sub-Saharan Africa, the Africa average is 18 per cent, when you increase your VAT, your Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow.”

She noted that the government had used the finance bills to block leakages, and strengthen the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigeria Customs Service adding that the government has also done automation of the two institutions through the process.