Tax reform: No to scrapping of TETFUND

THE Tertiary Education Trust Fund, the Student Education Loan Fund and other education-related components of the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024 are ill-conceived, regressive, and anti-people to say the least. The National Assembly, the state governors, the students’ union organisations and the Nigeria Labour Organisation must act fast to rescue the education sector in the public interest by ensuring the provision is expunged from the NTB. It must not become law.

Broadly, The PUNCH supports the tax reforms. Primarily, the four bills will enhance tax operations in Nigeria and rescue the tax system from its primitive, pedestrian past. At between 6.6 per cent and 10 per cent to GDP, Nigeria has one of the worst tax-to-GDP ratios in the world. The Bola Tinubu administration targets 18 per cent tax-to-GDP by 2026. Without tax reforms, this is impossible.

In decent societies, education is funded by a mixture of tuition, grants, loans,…