Fayose cautions against VAT rate increase

•Gov flayed for opposing electoral crimes panel
Following remarks last Thursday at a Lagos function by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo that the current five per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) rate in the country was very low, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has cautioned against its upward review.

He alleged that government’s plan to increase the rate to 10 per cent amounts to imposing more hardships on Nigerians.

In a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor described the move as “wickedness” on the part of the Federal Government.

In another development, the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has berated the governor over his opposition to the establishment of election crimes tribunal to try individuals for electoral frauds and violence.

The state Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in a statement yesterday, said Fayose was afraid of his own shadow by the way the federal institutions he listed were allegedly manipulated to help him win the June 21, 2014 governorship election.

The governor had last week criticised the proposal by the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) to establish the panel, alleging that it was a ploy by government to appoint amenable judges to give favourable judgments to the ruling party.