NEDC seeks increase in VAT, Ecological Fund share to 5%

The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has appealed to the Federal Government to increase its share from the Value Added Tax and Ecological Fund from three to five per cent.

NEDC Managing Director, Mohammed Alkali, made the appeal on Wednesday during a stakeholders’ meeting between the NEDC and members of the National Assembly from the northeast in Abuja. 

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He said the government’s funding NEDC was grossly inadequate given the quantum of work the commission was doing. 

He said the budgetary provision to the commission was not sufficient to address the North East’s infrastructural challenge, which, he said, was estimated to cost $9.6bn. 

He said: “Now, we’ve access to the Value-Added Tax and the Ecological Fund. Our other cry is that we want the ratio to be increased from three per cent to five per cent because, at the end of the day, the quantum of the amount we are going to look for is far in excess of what the VAT will provide. So, our demand is to see how the ration can be increased.”

Earlier, the leader of the North East Caucus in the National Assembly, Senator Danjuma Goje, said the meeting was an opportunity to have a firsthand briefing on the commission’s activities “because we want development of the North East.”