Founding President of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Omooba Olumuyiwa Sosanya has commended the governments of Rivers State and Lagos State for spearheading the move for states collation of the Value Added Tax.
He observed during an interview with The Nation that states collation of VAT portends higher revenues for states government, while it would enable fiscal federalism.
Sosanya also noted that those against the move are ignorant of the concept of VAT. He added that the Federal Inland Revenue Service has been able to efficiently collect the VAT because of its nature.
His words, “The issue of the judgment by the Federal High Court in Rivers State on the VAT, I think the judgment was a divine intervention. This is because we have been talking of federalism and unfortunately, we have a system that is lopsided whereby every state has to look up to the federal government to run their economy. The Nigerian constitution allows for each of the states to make laws to run their economy. But unfortunately, we’re still running a unitary government which was the system put in place by the army.
“Fortunately, we have had civilian government in the last 20 years but I don’t know why none of them has been bold enough to put things properly. So this judgment, I think one can call it a revolution to restructure this country, especially the economy.
“…there is no way the FIRS would be able to administer the VAT law adequately and efficiently because it is a very tight tax.”
He continued, “So, I’m happy that Rivers and Lagos states have begun the process and before you know it, other states would join the bandwagon. And I don’t envisage anything different by the Supreme Court. The thing is that the VAT law as an established law is not entrenched in our constitution neither is it on the Exclusive List of what the federal government can enact, so each of the states can make laws suitable for them. All the states need to do is to go to their State Houses of Assembly to enact laws. In fact, most people making comments against the state collection their arguments are misplaced and rooted in ignorance.”
