Governor Ayodele Fayose hits President Buhari hard again, as
the federal government unlawfully and heartlessly reviewed upward Pay As You
Earn (PAYE) tax, pension and National Housing Fund (NHF) deductions, in the midst
of recession which is largely caused by the Buhari led government’s lack of
foresight and technocrats in sensitive positions to pilot the affairs of the
country.
Such deductions will end up forcing so many civil servants
to suffer as much as 30% reduction in their salaries.
Fayose recalled that when Buhari was a military head of
state, he dealt with Nigerians through the barrels of the gun, but now as a
civilian president, he is now using the current recession to punish Nigerians
as a way of thank them for electing him into office, as if that was not enough,
he is now adding salt to injury with the introduction various inhuman taxes to
reduce the salaries of civil servants which is not even enough even without the
said deductions.
Thus, the governor stated how wicked and inhuman it is for
any government to increase taxes on workers salary at this period of economic
recession when “workers take home can no longer take them home,” adding that;
“The federal government should stop believing that the only way it can take
Nigeria out of recession is to impose obnoxious taxes that will further
impoverish the people.”
In an announcement made on Sunday by the governor’s Special
Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, he said; “If
government does not have capacity to increase workers salary at this trying
period, it should not also increase taxes that will cause decrement in what
workers earn.”
Salary of federal government workers was reportedly reduced
through increment in PAYE tax, pension, National Housing Fund (NHF), formerly
based on consolidated, which were applied on gross salary. Some of the workers
had as much as 30 per cent pay cut.
In his reaction, Governor Fayose said it look as if the
President Mohammadu Buhari led All Progressives Congress (APC) federal
government’s desire was to kill Nigerians with unbearable taxes. He said; “As
military head of state, Buhari used gun to deal with Nigerians, now as a
civilian president, he is using economic recession to punish Nigerians and
adding salt to injury by using inhuman taxes to reduce workers salary.
“Buhari’s government increased petrol price from N87 to N145
per litre, kerosene; diesel and gas price was increased, electricity tariff was
increased, N50 stamp duty was imposed on bank customers, N65 levy was imposed
on every withdrawal on ATM, various bank charges introduced, custom duties increased
and now workers’ PAYE tax has been increased.
“I sympathise with the federal government workers who only
got to know about reduction of their salaries when they got credit alert last
month, but they should remember that I warned them.
“Workers are already facing hardships owing to the economic
recession, which has caused exchange rate to rise to as much as N480 to $1. The
implication of this is that the purchasing power of a worker that is earning
say N100,000 per month has reduced to less than N50,000 per month, meaning what
such a worker bought at N10,000 this time last year is now sold at N25,000.
“I therefore call on the federal government to reverse this
decision so as to reduce the level at which the workers are suffering.”
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