Buhari will respect final court verdict on VAT – Adesina

The Presidency has said President Muhammadu Buhari will respect the final verdict on the Value Added Tax as decided by the Supreme Court.

There has been a raging controversy whether the states or the Federal Government through the Federal Inland Revenue Service should have the powers to collect VAT.

But reacting to the issue, spokesman for the President, Femi Adesina, “Eventually, we will have a legal pronouncement, which may come from the highest court in the land…. Knowing the Buhari administration, it will obey the rule of law.”

He added, “All these states are not unanimous. You have heard some governors speaking out against the position of certain states which are so militant on this VAT issue.”

According to him, the matter will affect the ongoing conversation on fiscal federalism.

He said, “The VAT is good because there have been talks about restructuring and fiscal federalism in the country. If states eventually get their demands in respect of VAT, there will be something like fulfilling fiscal federalism. But then, fiscal federalism itself must be done within the ambits of the law.”

The row over who collects VAT between the Federal Government and the state governments broke out after last month’s verdict by a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt that Rivers State is legally in order to collect VAT in its domain.

The Rivers State Government quickly enacted a VAT law and commenced the process to start the collection.

But the FIRS insisted on continuing with the collection and has challenged the judgment at the Court of Appeal, which on Friday ordered the maintenance of the status quo until the determination of the appeal.

Lagos State, which generates the highest amount of VAT, has enacted its own law empowering it to collect the consumption tax in its domain.

Adesina, speaking on Arise TV, also touched on Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) 2020 financial report, and the security situation in the Northwest.

On the NNPC 2020 audited reports and the declared profit after tax of N287 billion, Adesina lashed out at those who always fail to see positive developments, but are always looking for bad in every good being recorded in Nigeria’s recent history.

He described the state of minds of those picking holes in the news of the profit as those that have been accustomed to hearing bad news, adding that they questioned its authenticity because they never thought that positive things could happen in government.

“Well, we have heard stories in this country before; how Presidents will just give notes to NNPC and their wishes got done without records. There was a lot of impunity in this country, but the NNPC GMD is on record, even the Chief Finance Officer, Umar Ajiya, is on record as saying that President Buhari does not interfere in their operations. It used to happen, but under this administration, it has never happened. That was why you had that declared profit.

“But the surprising thing is that it seems some Nigerians are already so used to bad news, that they have got inured to good news. When that good news came, their first instinct was to pick holes in it because all their lives they are used to bad news.

“When that good news came, they couldn’t imagine it, but it happened. I watched your engagement with the Chief Finance Officer of the NNPC, how he explained that profit and anybody who is not cynical, will know that there’s a lot of truth in what the CFO said.

“Yes, I watched the encounter with the CFO, like I said, and he emphasised that one of the things they had to do was to cut costs. Cut costs for operations; cut costs of production, running costs, and it all redounded to the profit that was declared.

“It shows that there was a lot of wastage, extravagance, lack of accountability in the previous years and the man also said both the President and the Vice President never interfere in the operations.

“As we said in the beginning, we knew and heard and it was indeed true that presidents and those in the corridors of power used to give directives to the NNPC to do certain things, which at the end of the day will erode the profitability of the corporation. That doesn’t happen again and that is why that perfect came.”

Asked if the President would be disposed to speaking to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in a private audience, in order to avert the industrial action they just threatened to embark on, Adesina said “why not? The President will do everything that will contribute to industrial harmony in any part of the country, but I also recall that in 2020, just before the COVID lockdown began, ASUU came to see the President, the President personally received ASUU, I was at that meeting, but ASUU still went on strike that lasted about 10 months or more.

“So, what I’ll like to say is that we shouldn’t have the ‘we against them mentality’ in this country. Nigeria belongs to all of us; it belongs to lecturers, it belongs to ASUU, it belongs to those serving in government, it belongs to the ordinary Nigerians. This ‘we against them mentality’ serves nobody any good purpose. Whatever will account for industrial harmony, including on our campuses, let all sides do”, he said.

On the lingering ban of the international social media platform, Twitter, from Nigeria, and the recent shutdown of telecommunication coverage in Zamfara and parts of Katsina State, the presidential spokesman said they were actions taken in the overall interest of security and peace in the country.