By Tunde Ajaja
The Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, has faulted the plan to impose a new tax on companies to raise funds for the National Youth Service Corps scheme. He said it was counterproductive to keep imposing taxes on companies struggling to stay afloat.
The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed into law a bill – NYSC Trust Fund (Establishment) Bill – seeking to establish the National Youth Service Corps Trust Fund. The Senate has yet to concur with the bill passage.
The Fund is to be financed with a levy of one per cent of the net profit of companies and organised private sector operating business in Nigeria; 0.2 per cent of total revenue accruing to the federation account; and any takeoff grant and special intervention fund as may be provided by the federal, state and local governments of the federation.
According to the bill titled, ‘A Bill for an Act to Establish National Youth Service Corps Trust Fund for the purpose of providing a Sustainable Source of Funds for the National Youth Service Corps, Skill Acquisition, Training and Empowerment of Corps Members, Training and Retraining of the Personnel of the National Youth Service Corps, Development of Camps and NYSC formations and Facilities therein; and for Related Matters’, the NYSC would still be entitled to funds from other sources.
Speaking on the proposed tax, Oyedele said there had been a plethora of related taxes imposed on the already beleaguered citizens and companies, with little or nothing to show for the money generated.
Oyedele, a seasoned tax expert, said, “Introducing a new tax on companies to fund the NYSC scheme is counterproductive. We have similar earmarked taxes to fund tertiary education, Information Technology, Industrial Training, Police, Science and Engineering, local content and recently a bill was passed to fund tertiary healthcare and the list goes on. Sadly there’s little or nothing to show for these taxes and the attendant huge costs on taxpayers.
“The business environment is hard enough as it is; dealing with rising inflation impacting costs, scarcity of forex to import materials and equipment, poor infrastructure, especially electricity and transportation, overregulation, and insecurity among others.” (punch)