Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed has drawn a battle line with her Communication and Digital Economy counterpart, Isa Ali Pantami over the planned collection of the increased tariff of five per cent on internet data and phone calls.
Against Pantami’s threats to stop implementation of the increased tariff on telecommunication consumers, saying it will scuttle the growth in the sector, the finance minister said government is going ahead to implement the new tariff hike no matter the opposition. She said the five per cent hike has been in the Finance Act 2020, but was never been implemented.
The finance minister made the remarks during a stakeholders’ meeting that was organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). She was represented by the assistant director, tax policy in her ministry, Musa Umar. “Henceforth, the five percent excise duty will be collected by telecom operators and payment made to the federal government on a monthly basis, on or before 21st of every month,” the minister said yesterday.
Pantami had rejected the planned implementation of five percent excise duty in the Nigerian telecoms sector. He expressed his disapproval for the policy at a telecom forum in Lagos that was organised by the Nigeria Office for Developing the Indigenous Telecoms Sector (NODITS), an agency domiciled in the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC).
