This seems to be the latest development in terms of the ways of building back the country through tax. According to different sources on Friday, at the 2016 Annual Bankers’ Dinner put by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, proposes to tax calls for the long phone call makers and those who call above 3minutes.
Because it could generate an additional N100 billion if well effected annually. This were his words;
“There are several ways we can raise additional revenue to finance the increased expenditure that is needed to engender fast and sustainable growth in the economy. I think we can consider introducing a negligible telecom surcharge to be entirely borne by the initiator of a call. In order to protect the poor and vulnerable amongst us, we could structure it to only take effect after the third minute of talk.
Some analyses have indicated that the government could earn about N100 billion per annum from this alone.”
He also stated that surcharges should be taken from the people who make calls above 3minutes since the poor people do not make calls for more than 3-minutes. Well, Come to think of the poor people who make mid night calls and those in packages that allows them to talk longer.
This is not the first time a government official is proposing a communication tax and I hope it doesn’t come to reality.
Let’s hope for the best…
