The Peoples Democratic Party has called on governors in the South-South to back the recent legal move to reposition the VAT collection to states.
The National Vice Chairman, South-South of the party, Chief Dan Orbih, made the call on Saturday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Benin City, Edo State.
The party said that the recent judicial interpretation to the VAT law, which reposed in the federating states the powers to superintend over the consumption tax, showed that the judiciary was alive to its responsibilities.
“The court has placed VAT where the duty rightly belongs,” he said, adding that it would be a catalyst for grass-roots development.
Orbih also noted that the recent action to seek interpretation of the VAT law by Rivers and later Lagos State was a big window for the South-South and indeed other states to achieve the long desired quest for fiscal federalism.
“With this development the long desired dream of many Nigerians for equitable distribution of resources has been given a strong push. This is a bold and salutary move in restructuring our tax collection system.
“The soundness in the economics of Wike’s action is seen in the speed with which Lagos state moved in the same direction towards pursuing the same objective,” he stated.
Orbih described the Rivers and Lagos states’ domestication of the VAT law as a nonpartisan action driven by the burning desire to give practical meaning to fiscal federalism.
“I call on other state governors, especially in the South-South, to move with dispatch in support of VAT collection and retention by states,’’ he said