“Taxing People without Increasing Their Income”: Ndume Blasts Tinubu's Govt over Cybersecurity Levy
- Borno Senator Ali Ndume has maintained that the cybersecurity levy will impoverish Nigerians following the country's current hardship
- According to Ndume, Bola Tinubu's government has continued to add more burdens on Nigerians, yet "nothing is done to increase their income"
- Meanwhile, the CBN, through its circular, disclosed that the implementation of the levy would commence in two weeks
Legit.ng journalist Esther Odili has over two years of experience covering political parties and movements.
The chief whip of the 10th Senate, Senator Ali Ndume, has condemned the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)'s newly introduced cybersecurity levy.
Source: Facebook
Ndume: "Cybersecurity levy, wrong timing"
Recall that the CBN directed deposit money banks in the country to start charging 0.5% cybersecurity levy on transactions on Monday, May 6.
This was contained in a circular dated May 6, 2024, issued by the Apex Bank to all commercial, merchant, non-interest, and payment service banks, as well as mobile money operators and payment service providers.
Ndume maintained that it is wrong for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's led federal government to continue levying citizens while doing nothing to increase their income.
The lawmaker representing Borno South Senatorial District in the Senate, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, said that the proposed cybersecurity levy will increase the tax burden on Nigerians.
“You cannot tax people when you are not increasing their income. Their source of income, you are not widening it, you are not increasing it. I am not part of those that support levying people anyhow,” Ali Ndume said.
Sowore reacts to cybersecurity levy
Similarly, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 election, Omoyele Sowore, accused the CBN of using the newly amended Cybercrimes Prohibition Act of 2015 to rob Nigerians.
Sowore stated this while reacting to the new CBN directive for commercial banks to impose a 0.5% cybersecurity levy on all transactions.
He added that just like the CBN, the Nigeria Police Force is using the old Cybercrimes Prohibition Act as a tool to cage journalists in the country.
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Source: Legit.ng
