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'FG's Turn-Around On Vat, Good Beginning''FG's Turn-Around On Vat, Good Beginning'
This Day
Sufuyan Ojeifo
20 June 2007
A member of the Senate negotiating team that engaged leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Senator Smart Adeyemi, (Kogi West) said yesterday that the Federal Government decision to revert to the old Value Added Tax (VAT) regime of five per cent was a demonstration of good faith by the President Umar Yar' Adua's administration.
He said this at the end of the meeting held at NLC office, Abuja, adding that the return from 10 percent to five percent VAT and reduction of the pump price for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from N75 to N65 per litre represented a good beginning in the resolution of the issues at stake.
Adeyemi said Nigerians should accept Yar' Adua's gesture to reduce the pump price of fuel by N5, because according to him, he (Yar' Adua) was not the one who increased the price.
"If he agreed to reduce the pump price of petroleum from N75 to N70, bearing in mind that he is yet to fully settle in the office; some of the action you take when you get into the office, if you don't take your time, you may not know the implications, so, to me, I feel they should accept the N70 for a start. It is a good beginning."
He said the meeting with the NLC was very robust, adding that labour showed understanding.
According to him, when we got there, I told the labour leader that I wanted to sit on their side; I said I would not support anything that would oppress the people. Basically, I would want to support anything that would improve the basic lives of Nigerians, this was why some of us opted for partisan politics. I even made it known to labour leaders that I am still part and parcel of labour and that some of us would not be seated in the Senate and allow laws that would be very painful to the people to be implemented in this country, not for now," Adeyemi said.
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