Telecom subscribers have expressed dissatisfaction at the insistence of the Federal Government to impose excise duty on telecommunications services.
As such, the users, under the aegis of National Association of Telecoms Subscribers of Nigeria (NATCOMS), said they would be going to court in the first week of 2023 to challenge the plan.
President of NATCOMS, Deolu Ogunbanjo, who spoke with The Guardian, yesterday, confirmed this. He stressed that the matter had been put on hold before the Federal Government came up to reactivate the plan to impose the tax on consumers.
Ogunbajo said there are other areas where the Federal Government could make money, outside the telecoms sector.
“They want to kill the sector that is already over burdened with various forms of taxes, close to 40 of them. We will not allow this to stand. We are going to court in the first week of 2023.”
Indeed, news filtered in last week that the Federal Government was reconsidering imposing excise duty on telecoms services after it was suspended. The plan would compel operators to adjust the rates of calls and data upward.
This information was inferred from the invitation to a public hearing and submission of memoranda on the 2022 Finance Bill sent out by the House of Representatives Committee on Finance.
It indicated that suspended excise duty on telecoms services might feature again in the 2022 Finance Bill, which is currently before the National Assembly.
The document did not specify the rate at which the excise duty would be charged.
Part of the document reads: “Telecommunication services provided in Nigeria shall be charged with duties of excise at the rates specified under the duty column in the Schedule as the President may by Order prescribe pursuant to section 13 of this Act.”
The document further stated that the need to increase revenue generation/tax administration was the reason for the proposed excise duty on telecoms services.
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