The Federal Government has announced the removal of excise duty for telecom sub-sector in line with the recommendations of its Committee to review the applicability of the Duty to the telecom sector considered already overburdened with taxation and sundry levies.
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, disclosed this Tuesday at a briefing to provide updates on the status of the 5 per cent excise duty, whose applicability to the telecom sector was objected by the Minister in August 2022.
Following President Muhammadu Buhari suspension, he set up the Presidential Review Committee on Excise Duty in the Digital Economy Sector.
Pantami, who is the Chairman of the Committee said the Committee can be summed up in three arguments put forward to justify why additional burden in form of taxes or any level should not be imposed on the telecom sector to prevent a reversal of the important contribution the sector is making to the growth of the Nigerian economy.
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He said: “First, operators in the telecoms sub-sector currently pay no fewer than 41 different categories of taxes, levies and charges; secondly, telecoms has continued to be a major contributor to Nigerian economy in terms of Gross Domestic Product Contribution (GDP).
“The third ground is that the sector, despite increase in the cost of all factors of production naturally leading to increase in costs of products, the cost of service has been stable and in many cases continued to go down over the past years and therefore, adding more burden will destroy the sector.”
The Minister said the President, having looked into the arguments exempted the telecom sector from the excise duty as stated in Finance Act of 2021.”
