Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Zulum, on Sunday, explained why the northern governors advised President Bola Tinubu to hold on before pushing the controversial tax reform bills.
The governor said the Northern Governors Forum only needs time for consultation.
“On this tax issue, there are a lot of misconceptions. We felt that the VAT provision in the tax law. Based on the calculations that we did, only Lagos and Rivers States will benefit from this scheme. We did our own research and concluded that we would lose,” Zulum said.
“Why are we in a rush? We advised the Federal Government to take a pause and expunge some of the clauses that are inimical to Northern Nigeria.
“What we are saying is that give more time, let us do a deeper consultation to understand the nitty-gritty of this tax regime before passing it into law.”
Zulum explained that if the bill scales through the National Assembly, states would be shortchanged as only Lagos State would be the main beneficiary of the policy.