CEM REPORT | The intended 5 percent excise duty on mobile phone calls and data, proposed by the Minister of Finance to boost revenue has been suspended by the President.
According to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Pantami who kicked against the proposal from start said he advised President Muhammadu Buhari against it owing to the effects it would have on the digital economy project.
The minister while speaking at the inauguration of a committee that will review the policy in Abuja added that the introduction of excise duty in the telecommunication industry would jeopardise the successes already recorded within the industry.
Pantami further noted that the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector is already over-burdened with multiple taxations both at the federal and state level.
He revealed that there are more than 41 taxes that telecommunication and ICT companies are paying, and he stressed that it would be unfair to subject them to payment of excise duty.
A Presidential committee on the review of the excise duty in the digital economy has been inaugurated by the federal government.
