Northern Leaders Did Not Entirely Reject Tax Reform Bills – Shekarau

Former governor of Kano State, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, has said the Northern leaders did not outrightly reject President Bola Tinubu’s tax reform bills.

Naija News reports that Shekarau made this known in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday.

The former education minister stated that the Northern leaders needed wider consultations, as they believed the general public was not involved when the bills were first presented.

Shekarau, the chair of the League of Northern Democrats, maintained that they are concerned about inclusiveness in the reform process, noting that reforms are nothing new in any nation.

He noted that a technical committee had been established to review the reforms, and its findings would be released to the public in a few days.

He said, “Regarding the reform, I think it’s a very welcome development. When you come with new ideas that, of course, is expected. And then, looking into the various sectors that will improve the wellbeing of our citizens, the improvement of the economy, and so on and so forth, it’s a very welcome development. The area of concern to a number of us is the inclusiveness in the process in all of these reforms. Reforms are nothing new in any nation, in any community, and that is being expected. You need to look into what is on ground when you come on board and see how you can improve it. Even if you are staying for one year or one day, don’t leave the state the way you met it, you have to make progress.

“What we have done in the league is not just to jump and condemn and throw the whole thing overboard that we’re not accepting. We set up a technical committee, and the technical committee comprises experts in various fields that is to do with the economy – the finances and tax issues.

“The committee has come up with its report, and just a few weeks ago, specifically on the 19th of December, we made a public presentation of our technical report. We are not rejecting the entirety of the bill – you know there are four bills. We identified each of the bills, and we agreed with most of the reforms. There are a few areas where we said need to be reviewed. Some of the bills – the first one, the second one, we have no problem with them, in fact, we said it should be passed.

“The third one, that is to do with the new concept of the leadership of the revenue services, the one you have before the Federal Inland Revenue Services, where the government is recommending the Chairman of the board should also be the Chief Executive, if I may cite this as an example, we said this is not going to give us the accountability and transparency required. Let there be Chairman of the Board, independent of the Chief Executive of the board. Because the Chairman, who of course will be an expert, will be a very experienced person, will be overseeing the activities of the board. The Chief Executive of the board will be the one that will be running the board, or maybe the affairs of the agency and day-to-day basis, and he can serve as the secretary of the board.

“So, these are little things that mostly are administrative matters that we are looking into, and we even went to the extent of looking into what the sharing formula is at the moment, comparing it with what is being proposed. In the next couple of days, we are going to release to the public our findings. In fact, we are already writing to Mr President, we are forwarding our own observation to the vice president, to the senate, to the house of reps, and even to the committee.”