The federal government has announced an immediate suspension of the five per cent excise duty it planned to impose on telecommunications services in 2022 even as it set up a committee chaired by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami, to review the policy immediately.
Pantami, who inaugurated the Presidential Committee on Excise Duty for the Digital Economy Sector on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja yesterday, said the decision to suspend the policy was to protect the sector from over taxation.
The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the Nigerian Customs Service had recently announced their readiness to start collecting excise duty on telecommunications service. This decision did not go down well with industry players even as they warned of severe consequences on the sector.
Pantami, who had personally rejected the policy and advised President Buhari, cited the dangers the policy posed on the digital economy and the…
Source: Leadership Newspaper
