Rewane and Oyedele disagree with the ASUU’s 10% education tax

The Academic Staff Union of Universities‘ proposal to raise the tertiary education levy from three percent to ten percent has been criticized by tax specialists. They said that following this course would harm private businesses, which are already burdened with taxes.

To pay for the facilities of Nigeria’s institutions, ASUU President Prof. Emmanuel Osedeke has recommended raising the education tax from three to ten percent.

“When we had a dispute with the government in 1992, they advised us to search for other sources of support. TETfund was created in this way.

This time, the government claims there isn’t enough money to pay for it and suggests raising money via tuition. How can a guy who makes N30,000 afford it? Why not invest 10% of the profits from large corporations in the education sector to create a more prosperous and free nation? Osedeke had said in an interview with Arise TV that The MINIECHAT had watched.

However, this has not been favorably received by tax specialists, who maintain that the plan should be rejected outright.

In an interview with Arise TV, Taiwo Oyedele, Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader at PwC, disagreed with ASUU, claiming that the education tax had just recently increased.

And based on the 2022 Finance Bill, there is a proposal to raise it from 2.5 percent to three percent, he said. Because education tax is computed on a considerably wider base than corporate income tax, I can say with authority that one basis point of education tax rate is comparable to two basis points of corporate income tax rate.

According to Oyedele, a company would really be paying more than 40% tax after computing the income tax, technology tax, police tax, research and engineering tax, and other taxes.

This is among the highest in the world for a nation trying to draw in investors. Even higher than the OECD, it is. The issue we have with funding in the educational sector is not made worse by putting more pressure on the commercial sector.

The main issue is that over the last ten years, education tax has given that industry approximately N2 trillion. Who is providing an explanation of how that money was used? He queried.

The plan, in the opinion of Bismark Rewane, chief executive officer of the Financial Derivatives Company, was not appropriate at this time.

Despite my admiration for ASUU, there was yet another knee-jerk response, he stated. What do we want to accomplish with the 2.5% Tertiary Education Tax? We should examine both the effect and the way that tax funds have been used.

Rewane criticized a presidential candidate’s plan for student loans, saying it was unworkable. The election is next month.

“The source of the loan repayment is the primary concern of a lender,” he stated. Without knowing whether they will find employment, you are giving students loans so they can pay for their education. It doesn’t, in my opinion, work anyplace.

It is an issue, even in the US. Giving out scholarships, loans, and bursaries to enable students to pursue higher education seems me as a far more practical solution.

Quality education that is free and required is a right.
He proposed that the money saved from subsidies be used nearly entirely to pay for education.

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