The Federal Government has suspended the proposed excise duty on telecommunication services. The suspension was announced by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami, on Monday during the inaugural meeting of the Presidential Committee on Excise Duty for the Digital Economy Sector in Abuja.
According to the minister, the Information, Technology and Communication sector, especially the telecom industry, is already overburdened by excessive and multiple taxations, which will likely adversely affect the sector, if the government fails to take any precaution.
Pantami noted that the ICT sector has been the backbone of the Nigerian economy both in the area of its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product and taxes collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
The minister said, “However, in spite of the contributions and achievements of the sector, we have been recording some challenges coming up from time to time that if care is not taken these challenges could be a barrier to the development of this sector in the next few years to come. One of them is the issue of excessive taxation and sometimes, multiple taxations in the sector.”
