Fayose condemns hike in federal workers’ PAYE tax, urges reversal

Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose has urged on the Federal Government to rescind its decision to increase the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax as well as pension and National Housing Fund (NHF) deductions, saying it will further impoverish the people.

According to Fayose, the new government decision applied on gross salary is making some of the workers to have as much as 30 per cent reduction in their pay.

The governor said it was wicked and inhuman for any government to increase taxes on workers salary at this period of recession when “workers take home can no longer take them home.”

“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 a statement issued yesterday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said: “If the government does not have capacity to increase workers’ salary at this trying period, it should not also increase taxes that will cause
decrease in what workers’ earn.”

According to the governor, it appears that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led FederalGovernment’s desire is to kill Nigerians with obnoxious taxes.

His words: “Buhari’s government increased petrol price from N87 to N145 per litre, kerosene; diesel and gas prices were 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 were introduced, custom duties increased and now workers’ PAYE tax has been increased.

“I sympathise with the federal 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 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 thanN50,000 per month, meaning that what such a worker bought at N10,000 this time last year is now at N25,000.“I therefore call on the Federal Gsovernment to reverse this decision so as to reduce the level at which the workers are suffering.”