CBN Gov advises FG to introduce tax charge on phone calls

The Federal Government has been advised to tax Nigerians for every call above three minutes.

The advice came from the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, who says it will cushion the effect of the economic recession.

Speaking at the Annual Bankers’ Dinner in Lagos on Friday, November 18, 2016, Emefiele said the government could raise about N100billion as additional revenue by introducing the charge.

In his words, “There are several ways we can raise additional revenue to finance the increased expenditure that is needed to engender fast and sustainable growth in the economy.”

Speaking further Emefiele said, “I think we can consider introducing a negligible telecom surcharge to be entirely borne by the initiator of a call. In order to protect the poor and vulnerable amongst us, we could structure it to only take effect after the third minute of talk.

“Some analyses have indicated that the government could earn about N100 billion per annum from this alone. Obviously this surcharge will mainly be borne by middle and upper class people since I do not know many poor people who make calls for more than 3 minutes!”