The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC says it considers the aspect of the recently signed Finance Bill by President Muhammadu Buhari that hikes the Value Added Tax, VAT, from 5.0 per cent to 7.5 per cent as a deliberate attempt to further overburden the common man and stifle businesses.
In a statement signed by TUC President, Qadiri Olaleye said any law that helps the government to generate more revenue at the expense of the public is anti-people and incapable of growing any economy.
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The TUC said multiple taxation is a bane to economic development anywhere in the world; hence most countries are reducing taxes to encourage small scale businesses, but the case is different with Nigeria where the country is said to be doing well in the World Ease of Doing Business Index, but the experience in the country does not corroborate that claim.
The labour centre added that according to reports by the National Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment and underemployment rate is over 43.3 percent, which by implication means that most parents still feed their able-bodied youth even after graduation from the tertiary institution, stressing that It is indeed pathetic that the Federal Government appears to be more interested in collecting taxes than creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
Labour argues that empirical evidences have shown that the poverty rate in the country has increased abysmally.
Labour insists that such a move is seen as a ploy to get back at the workers for asking for a review of the National Minimum Wage and it contradicts the promise of change the current administration made to Nigerians in the build-up to the 2015 elections.
The Congress agrees that government cannot create all the jobs; at the same time a conducive environment should be provided to fertilize the efforts by individuals to set up businesses. Not much can be achieved if investors are daily grappling with taxes. It insists that Government must begin to think out of the box to salvage the economy and that the 7.5 per cent increase in tax is a NO for the TUC
