The Nigerian Senate has passed two out of four major tax reform bills proposed by President Bola Tinubu, retaining the current Value-Added Tax (VAT) rate at 7.5%.
The bills passed include the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment bill and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment bill, aimed at modernizing and overhauling the country’s tax framework.
The Senate rejected a proposal to increase VAT to 10% and introduced a 4% development levy to sustain funding for key agencies, including the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI).
The development levy will be distributed among these agencies to support human capital and economic development.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, expressed commitment to concluding work on the remaining bills, emphasizing that the reforms would strengthen governance and improve revenue collection.
