More stakeholders in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), have kicked against the nine per cent communication service tax bill, waitng for the public reading at the National Assembly (NASS).
This bill, when passed into law, would add to more drain in the dwindling financial strength of most telecoms users in the country and this may lead to stunt broadband growth in the country.
With the bill becoming law, each operators would have no choice than add the nine per cent to services of the end users. Most Nigerians are barely surviving on one dollar per day and with this new introduction, many Subscribers Identity Module (SIMs), may become inactive in the nearest future if this bill is imposed on the Nigerian telecom industry.
Telecoms users will cough out huge sum of money for SMS, MMS, voice calls, data, watsapp and Pay TV, and that could be avoided because they already pay indirectly for VAT for every recharge they do on their mobile phone.
Although, stakeholders believe that taxation is one of the many ways through which governments all over the world generate income to be able to discharge their duties to the citizens. However, they caution the sponsor of the bill and NASS on passing the bill into law.
According to the Minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, the introduction of new taxes without harmonizing existing ones will put pressure on the Nigerian tax system, thereby making it unattractive to investors and may consequently be counter-productive in the long run for the nation’s targets on broadband penetration and end users.
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http://sunnewsonline.com/reactions-trail-9-communication-tax-bill/
