Ndume: Without consultation, Tinubu’s tax bills are dead on arrival at n’assembly

Ali Ndume, senator representing Borno south, says the tax bills sent by President Bola Tinubu to the national assembly are dead on arrival if there no consultations on them.

In October, Tinubu asked the national assembly to consider and pass four tax reform bills.

The bills include the Nigeria tax bill, the tax administration bill, and the joint revenue board establishment bill.

The Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) kicked against the bills, and the national economic council (NEC) asked Tinubu to withdraw the bills for further consultations.

However, the president said bills would not be withdrawn but national assembly could make changes to them where they see fit.

Speaking on Politics Today, an Channels Television programme, on Tuesday, Ndume said Nigerians could not afford to pay more tax because of the current state of the country’s economy.

“My advice is that as the northern governors and the NEC has said that the president should withdraw the bills and should do more consultation and he should carry Nigerians and the public along,” the senator said.

“But if it goes on like that, I can tell you that it will be dead on arrival. We don’t need to study the bill. The general thing is that Nigerians are not willing to pay any tax now considering the situation we have faced because this is government of the people.

“A country is working on tax reforms that will reduce the burden on the citizens. In fact they have abolished most of the taxes from 17 to three percent.”

The former chief whip of the senate said Nigerians “can only pay tax when they can afford it”.