December 14, (THEWILL) – The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the Finance Bill 2022 for transmission to the National Assembly, for consideration and passage.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, who disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after the Council meeting, presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday, said the Bill seeks to enhance tax administration, create new jobs, as well as generate revenue for public expenditure.
Mrs Ahmed said President Muhammadu Buhari had, during the presentation of the 2023 Appropriation Bill to the joint session of the National Assembly in October this year, said a new Finance Bill would be sent to the parliament to support the implementation of the 2023 Budget.
According to her, following consultations with various stakeholders, the ministry drafted the new bill to meet the president’s commitment.
She said the proposed Finance Bill 2022 is anchored on five fundamental policy drivers including Tax Equity, Climate Change, Job Creation/Economic Growth, Tax Incentives Reform and Revenue Generation/Tax Administration
Other aspects of the Finance Bill include Chargeable Assets, exclusion of Losses and Replacement of Business Assets.
Under the Tax Equity pillar, all sectors of the economy would be brought into the tax net including Capital Gains Tax from digital assets, Cable Undertakings, Lottery and Gaming Business.”
Similarly, under the Climate Change and Green Growth pillar of the bill, there would be incentives for the natural gas sector and discouragement of gas flaring.
The Bill also contains an amendment under Chargeable Assets, stating that “subject to any exceptions provided by this Act, all forms of property shall be assets for the purposes of this Act, whether situated in Nigeria or not, including Options, debts, digital assets and incorporeal property generally.
“We have been working on this bill and have done a lot of consultations. The bill we presented before Council today has five focus areas including tax equity reforms, climate change and green growth provisions, job creation and economic growth reforms, reforming tax incentives, as well as generating revenue-enhancing tax administration.
“The purpose of the tax equity reforms is to combat tax evasion and aggressive tax planning practices that some companies operating in Nigeria are involved in, but also enabling the utilisation of ICT tools and using international best practice to assess taxpayers tax on a fair reasonable basis.
“The climate change green growth focus will complement non-fiscal reforms that are designed to reduce greenhouse emissions and also to facilitate domestic and international investment in climate adaptation, as well as mitigation and also to enhance green growth and create jobs.
“The third focus area, which is job creation and economic growth, is also designed to complement the ease of doing business and other reforms to support capital formation by the private sector, as well as to foster an enabling business environment for micro, small and medium enterprises for youths, as well as women in businesses. It will also help to enhance the performance of businesses that are in FinTech, ICT, entertainment, Fashion, Sports, as well as the art space.
“The fourth tax incentive is to phase out antiquated pioneer, and other tax incentives for mature industries and moving a revised set of incentives to real infant industries, through economic governance reforms, we’ve also made proposals to reduce tax expenditure which is equivalent to foregone revenue to support the fiscal space and also based on statistics to gradually transition away from expensive and redundant tax incentives to incentives that are rewarding performance.
“The fifth Focus Area, which is revenue generation and tax administration, is to complement the ease of doing business and other reforms that enhance tax administration, as well as introduce targeted non-fiscal reforms to amend, address and cure defects in existing tax and non-tax laws as well as regulations.”
Mrs Ahmed said the Finance Bill 2022 if passed into law, would amend a number of fiscal laws in Nigeria.
These fiscal laws, she said, include the Capital Gains Law, the Company Income Tax Act, the Customs Excise Tariff Act, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Act, the Personal Income Tax, Stamp Duties Act, Tertiary Education Tax, Value Added Tax, VAT, Act, the Insurance Act, and the Nigerian Police Trust fund Act.
Other laws that would be amended are the Nigerian Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, NASENI Act, Finance Control Act and the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
“With this approval by Council the president would be conveying to the National Assembly a request for the consideration of this bill”, Mrs Ahmed said.
The Ministry also got the Council’s approval for the design, construction and supply of nine numbers Ballistic Riverian assault boats, as well as nine numbers patrol boats with all associated accessories in favour of Messrs Sewa West African limited in the sum of N689,722,681.30 inclusive of 7.5% VAT for the Nigerian customs service.
Ahmed, who also briefed on behalf of the Head of Service of the Federation (HoS), Folashade Yemi-Esan disclosed that the Council approved N9.24b as insurance cover for all government officials for 2022 to 2023 fiscal year.
According to the Minister, the money covers 30% annual emoluments of any Civil Servant that is deceased, under the period
“This is an insurance cover that covers all government agencies, military and intelligence agencies. Council approved the total sum of N9.24 billion for insurance coverage for 2022 to 2023. As you know, the insurance will take effect from the date of payment. And in Nigeria, by our laws, the insurance cover is 30% of the annual emoluments of any staff of government that is deceased and this cover is paid by the insurance company of the deceased staff”, she said.
Ahmed said FEC also approved the draft whistleblower bill, 2022.
“The draft Bill approved with a provision that will ensure alignment with the Evidence Act. The purpose of operationalizing and putting in place a whistleblower bill is to strengthen the fight against corruption and to also enable protection for whistleblowers that provide information for use by the government”, she said, adding that the Whistleblower policy which was introduced in 2016, has lost momentum.
“The council had approved the setting up of the Presidential Initiative of Continuous Audit (PICA). PICA has been working in partnership with EFCC, ICPC, DSS, NFIU, as well as the office of the Attorney General of the Federation.
“We embarked on engagements in the six geo-political zones and one of the main outcomes that we found is that people are concerned about their safety as a result of providing information. So this bill is critical to ensure the effectiveness of the retention of the whistle policy”, she said.
Also, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba, said FEC also approved the revised National Social Protection Policy, 2021-2025.
Agba said the revised national social protection policy is an offshoot of a previous policy that was implemented from 2017 to 2020.
“The review was carried out in collaboration with all relevant ministries, departments and agencies at both the federal and state levels, as well as other key stakeholders, including development partners.
“Recall that when the first policy was in place, there was no ministry like humanitarian affairs. Now we have that ministry. And since it’s part of the review process to do this every four years, the review had to be done.
“The National Social Protection Council is to be set up to be chaired by His Excellency the Vice President, with the Secretariat domiciled in the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, the ministers of labour and employment and then the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, disaster management and Social Development who serve as Vice Chair of that council. Also, there’s going to be a technical working group, which will be co-chaired by those two ministers”, he said.
Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, said FEC also approved 20 meters for testing transformers, at the cost of N574.4m to be delivered in 4 months.
The Meters are meant to test transformers’ reliability to be used by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), in testing all transformers to know their reliability and if they have faults.
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