BAUCHI STATE COALITION OF NORTHERN GROUPS CALLS FOR WITHDRAWAL OF TAX REFORM BILL PROCESS

By Aliyu Adamu Faggo:

Bauchi State Chapter of the Coalition Northern Groups Student Wing has called on the Federal Government for the interest of Nigerian Students to discontinue the Tax Reform Bill process in Nigeria and give room for a holistic consultation and amendment before legislation.

The Zonal Coordinator of the Coalition of Northern Groups Student Wing, Comrade Ibrahim Abdullahi Soro made the call during a paper presentation on Federal Government policies in education system particularly in Northern Nigeria, held at the Bauchi State College of Agriculture.

He said the CNG SW has deemed it necessary to draw the attention of all well-meaning Nigerians on the Impact of Tax Reform Bill on Education in Northern Nigeria and necessary action must be taken within a shortest period of time.

Comrade Soro revealed that the reform will have a deteriorating effect on critical Institutions that support the educational development in the country, adding that the Tax Reform Bill serves as a deliberate attempt to attack critical National Institutions that are responsible for basic infrastructure in Tertiary institutions, there by ensuring that the institutions become a mortuary.

He noted that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund TETFUND played a pivotal role in financing researches, physical infrastructure, staff training and development, saying according to Tax Reform Bill, TETFUND will not have any allocation by 2023 which now its will receive fifty percent of levy by twenty-twenty five and twenty-twenty six.

Adding that will increase to sixty six percent form 2027 to 2029, a situation which is tantamount to degrading the Tertiary Education system in Nigeria.

On the issue of Federal government students loan scheme, the CNG SW Coordinator comrade Ibrahim Soro said from the disbursement statistics over eighty-two thousand nine hundred and fifty-one (82,951) students across Forty-Five (45) institutions benefited from the region, adding that It is imperative to clarify that out of the Two-Hundred and thirty-four (234) Federal and State tertiary institutions cleared by NELFUND for the first Phase only Ninety-six (96) were from the north; with Fifty-one (51) tertiary institutions yet to receive disbursement