Some top players in the banking industry have met with President Bola Tinubu to seek more insight into the tax regime, specifically on the Windfall Levy recently passed by the National Assembly.
The meeting which held at the State House, in Abuja, had the audience of some Chief Executive Officers of Deposit Money Banks(DMB) in the country, led by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun.
Speaking to State House Correspondents after the meeting, the Minister of Finance, Edun, explained that the discussion was based on the banking system’s windfall profits and the government’s decision on wealth distribution across the country.
He noted that the meeting was amicable, knowledge-based, and data-driven, to give insight to the bankers on the tax regime, especially on the Windfall Levy.
He revealed government’s intention to simplify the tax regime, with more focus on taxing profits, while companies’ capital are left to grow.
“We know at this time that the banking system is raising money. They’re selling shares, they’re giving people opportunity to participate in their wealth, and that includes foreign investors. So it’s against that background that Mr. Elumelu and Mr. Balogun wanted some clarifications, particularly on the windfall levy that has just been passed by the National Assembly.
” And we sat and we talked about the importance of the banking system and the importance of the financial system as a whole at this critical time for encouraging investments, portfolio investments, into the stock market and government securities, as well as foreign direct investment.
“In this particular case, as we know, the banking system has enjoyed some, what we’ll call windfall or on hand profits and in the interest of distributing wealth across the Nigerian society, the government has stepped in to take some of that wealth on behalf of Nigerians”, the Minister said.
Also speaking, the CEO, First City Monument Bank(FCMB, Ladi Balogun said “the purpose of the meeting was to ensure that the reform agenda of this government is well transmitted to not only the banking sector, but the investment community. We sought to ensure that we are all on the same page.
On his part, the Chairman, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Tony Elumelu, said ” We believe in creating jobs and employment for our people. We believe in making sure that we democratize prosperity and that Nigerians have access to good life. So today we spoke about the Windfall Tax. We support the government.
“We believe that where extraordinary income has made a part of, it should go towards helping to alleviate poverty in the country, which is what the government intends to do. We support that and we just believe that we should make sure that no one segment suffers and that the government is able to continue to create jobs”.
Also present at the meeting was the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service(FIRS), who also doubles as the Special Adviser to the President on Revenue, Zacch Adedeji and other members of the finance and economic 0community.
