FG’s Irreverence 2% Tax on Mobile Phones, Others

The recent move by the federal government to impose  two per cent tax on the values of mobile phones, computers, software, cameras, photocopiers, printing machines and CD players manufactured in the country or imported is an aberration and ill-conceived.

And the federal government’s claim that the new levy on broad range of products capable of being used to infringe on the copyright of products and services, including computers, mobile phones and printing machines is also questionable.

This is because according to the Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC) the levy will apply to such products whether they are imported into the country or they are manufactured within the shores of the nation.

The order for the tax to be known as the Copyright Levy has already been gazetted by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation as the modalities for its implementation were being negotiated with the Nigeria Customs Service.

In all intents and purposes, the new regime negates the same federal government policy of local content and patronage of locally made products.

The new tax regime is grossly misleading.

This is because owning a phone or a gadget does not automatically make every Nigerian a copyright thief.

The proposed tax is a direct translation of the irreverence of policy makers in Nigeria who assume that every Nigerian is a potential breaker of copyright laws.

It is also worrying that the new policy is coming at a time when both indigenous software and Original Equipment Manufacturers OEMs are clamoring for local patronage.

The surviving PC makers- Zinox , Beta Computers, Omatek and  Brian Integrated Systems  are barely hanging in there.

Allowing the tax will effectively limit the use of ICT across a variety of sectors to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

We call on the federal government to quickly suspend the tax because it is not only illegal, wrong and immoral; it is also regressive because it will take a larger percentage from low-income people than from high-income people.

We also warn that if the tax is allowed to stand, lower income consumers are more affected by it because they are less able to afford PCs, mobile phones and other ICT tools.