The National Co-operative Financing Agency of Nigeria (CFAN), has appealed to the Federal Government to grant tax holiday for companies producing goods and services in the country.
Mr. Emmanuel Atama, the Executive Secretary of CFAN, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday.
Atama said the move would help cushion the effect of rising inflation in the country on Nigerians.
He also appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to develop necessary instruments to cushion the effect of the inflation on the people, which he said could lead to a rise in crime rate.
“The impact is that some families will not be able to feed effectively and in essence, it will negatively impact the general livelihood of the people.
“Our reaction is for the government to see what it can do to cushion the effect of this inflation especially now that Value Added Tax (VAT) has risen, electricity tariff and petrol prices have also gone up.
“You discover that when the prices of goods and services are also on the increase, this will leave the poor masses with nothing left for them to take care of themselves.
“What we are saying is more of appeal especially for the CBN to put necessary instruments in place to curtail this because when it continues like this, the people will become helpless,” he said.
Atama added: “When the people become helpless, they might resort to all forms of malpractices including crimes which will have negative results on the lives of people.
“In other climes, the government gave out tax holidays or incentives to producers of goods and services to cushion the effect of COVID-19 pandemic.
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“What we are saying is that subsidy could be removed on consumption but it could be given to producers of goods and services and when this happens, you will now see that prices of goods and services will become affordable to the citizens.
“What we are saying, in essence, is more or less an appeal to the government to use necessary instruments to put the economy in shape.’’
The executive secretary said that some of the recent increase approved by the government especially that of stamp duty charge on deposits negated the financial inclusion strategy with respect to banking.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) reported that the inflation rate increased by 13.22 percent in August.
The report said the figure represented 0.40 percent points higher than the 12.82 percent recorded in July.
“On a month to month basis, the headline index increased by 1.34 percent in August and this is 0.09 percent higher than the rate recorded in July (1.25 percent).