Nigeria Tax Spat Reignites Federalism Debate

A legal battle between Nigeria's government and states over sales tax is fueling fierce debate about federalism in Africa's most populous country as politicians jockey for position before 2023 elections

Lagos, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Oct, 2021 ) :A legal battle between Nigeria's government and states over sales tax is fueling fierce debate about federalism in Africa's most populous country as politicians jockey for position before 2023 elections.

The spat -- whether federal or state governments have the right to collect value-added tax (VAT) -- may be about money, and the sum at stake runs into billions of Dollars.

But the squabble also reflects long-standing questions about how Nigeria is governed and how wealth is shared in the continent's top oil producer.

How the dispute ends may open up more state autonomy, analysts say, as wealthier southern regions test federal management of issues from oil resources and security policing to cattle grazing rights.

In August, a court in southern Rivers State, Nigeria's petroleum heartland, ruled states should be responsible for collecting VAT and not the Federal Inland Revenue Service or FIRS.

Rivers State Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, a staunch opposition Peoples Democratic Party leader, pushed through a law authorising local collection of VAT, warning FIRS against any "sabotage." Southern Lagos State, the nation's economic powerhouse including the commercial capital Lagos, quickly followed with its own law to collect VAT.

After a federal government appeal, the dispute is caught up in competing demands, with Abuja considering a Supreme Court challenge.

Attorney General Abubakar Malami last week told reporters that only the national assembly could legislate on how VAT is levied.

"The federal government is looking at all options at its disposal, including the possibility of involving the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court," he said.

Under Nigeria's system, FIRS collects VAT centrally and the resources are distributed across federal, state and local governments.

VAT receipts in 2020 were 1.5 trillion naira or $3.6 billion. Under the current system the federal government gets 15 percent, with the rest split between states and local governments.

But richer southern states like Lagos and Rivers -- Lagos alone produces around half of Nigeria's VAT -- have long complained they end up paying for poorer states mostly in the agricultural north but also some southern ones.

They want more "fiscal federalism," meaning getting a bigger share of the VAT they collect and more responsiblity to manage their own affairs.

"What we are after is to ensure that this money is used for the people of Lagos State, and that is exactly what we have achieved," Setonji David, a Lagos assembly lawmaker, told Channels tv.