Payment of 5% excise duty beyond Ministerial directive —Budget Office

By Ibiyemi Mathew

The Director General of the Budget Office, Mr Ben Akabueze, has said that the decision to pay 5% excise duty or not by telecom operators is beyond ministerial directives.

Akabueze told journalists in Abuja in an interview that the 5% excise duty on telecommunication services is beyond the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami and the Minister of Finance adding that it is an Act of Parliament.

He noted that telecoms operators are already paying the 5% excise duty saying that the announced suspension is needless.

Akabueze, while justifying the tax said that tax on telecommunication services in Nigeria is below the African average, noting that members of the private sector were part of the tax policy review committee that deliberated on the matter.

The federal government had stated that it is set to implement the new tariff hike of five percent on calls and data.

The government through the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning disclosed it would begin the implementation of five percent excise duty tax on all voice calls, SMS and data services, in addition to the existing 7.5 percent Value Added Tax (VAT), paid for goods and services across all sectors of the economy.

Recall that the Finance Act, 2020 introduced ‘Telecommunication Services’ provided in Nigeria to be liable to excise duty under Section 21 (2) of the Customs and excise tariff (Consolidation) Act, CAP. C49, LFN 2004.