COVID-19: Governors to implement tax relief programmes

The Nigeria Governors‘ Forum has agreed to implement tax relief programmes for businesses across the 36 states of the federation in order to ease the current financial hardship caused by the coronavirus.

This was contained in a communique signed by the Chairman of the NGF, Kayode Fayemi, at the end of the 16th teleconference meeting of the forum, held on Tuesday.

The communique was made public by the Head, Media and Public Affairs of the NGF, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, in Abuja, on Thursday.

The communique read in part “All State governments through their Internal Revenue Services will ensure the seamless implementation of tax relief programmes for businesses and taxpayers. These programmes which were released in some States since March 2020 are designed to reduce the financial burden of taxpayers in the country up till 2021 in some cases.

“Members of the forum also deliberated on the roles played by state governors in the fight against the polio pandemic and resolved to maintain vigilance to ensure that the structures put in place for routine immunisation are not jeopardised by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They also commended the World Bank for the new initiative to support states in updating their property records, noting that some states are already in advanced stages of developing a geographic information system that will help them gather, manage and analyse geospatial data both for the purpose of spacial planning and property taxation.

“The Governors were also informed that the Ministry of Health has approved the disbursement of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund facility to eligible states to safeguard government interventions in primary health care service delivery during the pandemic.”