Tax Reform: PWDs Advocate Exemption, Waiver On Assistive Devices

In view of the tax reform bills before the National Assembly, Persons With Disabilities, PWDs, have advocated for tax exemption and waiver on sales of assistive devices.

They made the appeal in Abuja during a town hall meeting organised by a group called Fight Inequality Alliance, FIA, with the campaign message: ‘Tax The SuperRich, Not The Poor’.

Spokesperson of the FIA Team, Mrs Eno Sandra Uyebi, who lamented that the Four Tax Reform Bills were not disability friendly, noted that disability was only mentioned twice in section 164(j) on disability pensions granted to members of the Armed Forces and issues around liabilities in estates.

“…it has been observed that the Four Tax Reform Bills is not disability friendly. No fewer than 19 items get VAT exemption under Section 187. None of them has anything to do with disability”.

According to Mrs Uyebi while Section 188 grants zero percentage VAT on items like medicine and education, the exemption left out educational books and materials that is of paramount importance for PWDs.

“Reading materials in braille could fall under this exemption- except those blind readers don’t buy braille text books again. But the alternative, digital braille devices, are no books, and they are imported. The exemption doesn’t cover them. The drafters of the bills took no thought of all these” Uyebi explained.

Mrs Uyebi was of the opinion that the time to close the inequality gap was now, adding that taxing the SuperRich, and leaving out the poor would raise revenues to tackle social poverty, environment crisis and unlock trillions every year to invest in a better future for the people and the planet.

She gave an example of Elon Musk that makes about 3 billion dollars a day, yet billionaires pay only 0.3 percent tax, insisting that the transformative solution the world needs to improve living standard for citizens could be achieved by taxing the Billionaires appropriately.

“How much tax do billionaires pay? Just 0.3℅ of their wealth. Compare that with a rice trader in northern, eastern Nigeria, in Uganda who pays 40℅ and elsewhere in the world… also know this, that if 16 richest people in the world loses 99℅ of their wealth over night, they are still going to be billionaires.

“FIA is using this medium to draw the attention of the disability community to use disability lens in scrutinizing the four tax reform bills before the house and advocate for tax bills that are inclusive and doable for Persons With Disabilities in Nigeria”.

On her part, JONAPWD FCT Women leader, Amb Mube Awala Beatrice corroborated that PWDs need a lot of resources to take care of themselves educationally and health wise.

“There should be tax rebate for PWDs, especially on health insurance and tax waiver on assistive devices”.

Some of the disability community group that attended the Town Hall Meeting include Mr Donald Unanka, Creative Director Potters Gallery, Elwe Otaigbe represented the National Association of the blind, Abijah Matthew Asu represented the Albinism Association, Ukachi Cynthia and the Chairman, Association of the Deaf, Ayoade Beyioku- Alase.

They unanimously called for exemption towards building a just and sustainable world where excessive concentration of power and wealth are not left in the hands of a few elites.

Remi Johnson, Edited By Grace Namiji