The Jigawa State Government has approved the tax relief programme considering the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on a small scale and medium entrepreneur as well as microfinance in the state.
This was announced by the Commissioner of Finance, Babangida Umar Gantsa, at a press briefing in his office.
He said those included a tax holiday of 18 months with effect from 1st July 2020 up to December 2021 to all new enterprises, business names only and individual businesses that will come up after Coronavirus in the state.
Secondly, one year tax holiday from 1st July 2020 to 30th June 2021 as an incentive to all existing small and medium scale enterprises (business name) whose businesses suffered as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
The Commissioner further stated that all existing enterprises (business name only) and individual taxpayers in the state have an extension date of filling their return until 30th September 2020.
Umar said there is a reduction of penalties and interests to one single-digit number, that is from 10 per cent to 5 per cent on penalty and from 21 per cent to 9 per cent on interest respectively for late filing of annual returns by individual taxpayers as well as enterprises.
He added that the state government has also approved a waiver of 50 per cent on business premises license which includes the waiver of on informal sector taxpayers from 1st July 2020 up till 31st December 2021 as contained under 5th schedule of section 57 of subsection one of the Jigawa State Revenue codification and consolidation law number 4 of 2019 with effect from 1st July 2020 up till December 2021.
The state has also approved a waiver for warehouse rent for business at the EPZ by the Ministry of Commerce, as the Commissioner said these incentive does not affect cooperate bodies who are required to file their returns in respect of their employee on or before 31st January of each year.
The Commissioner dismissed the allocation of double taxation between the local government and the state because it is clearly spelt out that in Jigawa there is no issue of double taxation in the state.
He then pointed out that the issue of tax does not affect the salary of the civil servants in the state as he said: “We always pay the salaries on 25th of every month and we did not reduce the salary of our staff.”
Umar maintained that already the new salary structure is being used to pay the salary of workers in the state.
Follow the Neptune Prime channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va74ZvU2v1IqKByXoX3d
Do you have breaking news, interview request, opinion, suggestion, or want your event covered? Email us at neptuneprime2233@gmail.com
