You’ve raised VAT, refused business owners to increase price, that’s wrong – Odinkalu tells FG

By Florence Kalu

The former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Chidi Odinkalu has questioned the morality of the federal government to increaee Value Added Tax(VAT), and expect business operators not to increase prices of goods and services.

In a tweet from his twittee handle on Thursday, Odinkalu accused the federal government of raising charges on a variety of services but issuing orders to private operators not to increase.

“You Increased VAT, increased electricity tariff, increased petrol price, charges on POS, charges on ATM withdrawals, but private operators can’t adjust their prices under the watch of a government that keeps raising charges,” the tweet read.

The 2020 finance act, which was signed into law in January, raised VAT from 5% to 7.5%, to increase the government’s non-oil revenue.

The VAT increase was implemented on February 1.
Multichoice Nigeria had announced that the price adjustments will take effect from June 1.

It said the increase in VAT would see DSTV premium subscription rate move from N15, 800 to N16,200 while GOtv Max price will rise to N3, 280 from N3,200.

It will be recalled that on wednesday, the acting Director-General of Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Armstrong Idachaba, ordered the management of MultiChoice to suspend the implementation of its new tariffs.

At a remark Idachaba made after the house of representatives mandated its committee on implementation of pay as you go tariff (PAYG) plan by broadcast service providers to probe into the issue and report back for further legislative action.

The lawmakers argued that Nigerians are facing hard times due to the coronavirus pandemic, adding that an increase in prices of goods and services would have more devastating effect.