DESPITE recent call by former Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, for an increase in Value Added Tax (VAT), an expert has warned that “government will collapse in no time,” if the suggestion is followed.
“I am sure and I hope President Buhari would not do this,” said former KPMG Chairman and former Minister of Finance under the Sani Abacha government, Etubom Anthony Ani.

“We don’t need to increase VAT because all we need do is send people to the local governments to collect it. At the moment, consumers pay VAT. You have to consume. And individuals are the ones who consume, not goats or trees. These individuals stay in various local governments of Nigeria. Let the VAT collector go to the local governments. The VAT is waiting for him to be collected. I estimate that we will be having about N3tr annually, if the VAT man goes to the local government. We don’t need to increase VAT; let us collect what has not been collected,” said Ani, who is also a former President of the Chartered Institute of Accountants.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Guardian, recently, Ani faulted the petroleum subsidy scheme, describing it as a ruse and calling on government to instead “get the nation’s refineries right.”

According to the former Minister of Finance, “There is nothing like subsidy in Nigeria. Obasanjo did that to assist people to cheat this nation. We had a situation where one person was given the sole right to import diesel, yet we could have produced the diesel.”

He said: “What is happening is that the template Obasanjo brought in for petroleum products was importation-based. I, and Aminu Saleh and Buhari drafted the Petroleum Trust Fund (PFT) law and it was based on production. Let us go back to production. When you produce, you have by-products and those by-products are even more expensive than your barrel of oil. Therefore, if you do the production costing properly, you will find out that the cost of production of your litre of oil is much less than what we are importing.

“Therefore, let us go back to the issue of changing the template to that of production. What we are doing now is that the driver in this country is subsidising what is produced in petro-chemicals and fertilisers because all the by-products go there, and they are going there at zero cost. Whereas, if you do it properly, you will find out that what is going into petro-chemicals, the costing is even more expensive than a barrel of oil. So, let’s get our acts right.”

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/2015/11/obasanjo-created-subsidy-to-cheat-govt/

PDP is worst than CANCER.

madridguy:
PDP is worst than CANCER.

Yeah and the same PDP that created the Subsidy fraud is visiting Buhari every time Buhari visit Nigeria to give him advice.

Obasanjo + Atiku created subsidy, both of them are in APC now

At times I just get tired with the whole issue. I wish Buhari get to the Top via CPC then am sure by now the likes of OBJ, ATIKU and others would have been in jail cooling their a$s.

ITbomb:

Yeah and the same PDP that created the Subsidy fraud is visiting Buhari every time Buhari visit Nigeria to give him advice.

Obasanjo + Atiku created subsidy, both of them are in APC now

Obj is the worst president Nigeria has ever had yet my people of South West will not accept that. Obj caused all most all the problems and he is now in APC. Naija will be better without him.

madridguy:
PDP is worst than CANCER.

The veil of ethnicity and religion leave you, Amen. You need to look at issues critically. All Nigerians are suffering both PDP and APC supporters due to Obj fraudulent creation of subsidy.

He is the chief navigator of Apc and Buhari super special adviser, how did we get here

Nigeria is gradually becoming synonymous with fraud and impunity.
The worst among us are only prosecuted on the media.

madridguy:
At times I just get tired with the whole issue. I wish Buhari get to the Top via CPC then am sure by now the likes of OBJ, ATIKU and others would have been in jail cooling their a$s.

As long as you and some people continue to follow all this commentscomments by selfish people who continue to "label" individuals" as sole reason for problems,solutions will be hard for you to see but the day you look beyond what this "blame dart slingers are doing" then you begin to see the solutions!

abeg make this guys shout up jare, subsdy has come to stay. and it must stay.
what is good for d goose is equaly good for d gander, so me i suport subsidy.
buhari dare not try to remove it cos we will also occupy the streets n cause great untold hardship to our economy. our oil is what keeps naija afloat for now, ibeno oil.
we have leaders who r chicken livered and dont speak out when dey ought to, where was dis thing that is speaking now when gej wanted removing this sbsidy?
why didnt he come out n educate d masses then n save us from this problem we r constantly facing?
that s why i hate it wen they say our founding fathers did well cos they created all d mess we r facing now. i spit on them graves.

God will punish anyone that attempts to remove subsidy... Subsidy is a scam and must remain such. ...