The Federal Government has suspended the introduction of a 5% excise duty on mobile phone calls and data.
The suspension was announced by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami, on Monday, September 5, in Abuja during the inauguration of a committee that will review the policy.
The minister said he personally rejected the policy and also advised the president against it owing to the effects it would have on digital economy.
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According to the minister, the Information, Technology and Communication sector, especially the telecom industry, is already overburdened by excessive and multiple taxations, which will likely adversely affect the sector, if the government fails to take any precaution.
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.
The committee has Professor Pantami as chairman and the Minister of Finance, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed as a member.
Other members are the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Danbatta, the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service(FIRS), Muhammad Nami and representatives of the telecommunication industries.
