Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi, on Friday, says the resolution of the Southern Governors Forum does not reflect his stand on the issue of Value Added Tax (VAT) as presented by the forum.
Umahi said this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily breakfast programme on Friday.
Governors from states of southern part of the country had on Thursday declared their support for the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) by state governments, in place of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), at the forum’s meeting held at the Government House in Enugu State.
VAT is a consumption tax paid for goods and services, and charged at 7.5 percent.
Rivers and Lagos states were due to start the process of collecting VAT within their territories, until the Court of Appeal in a ruling on September 10 stopped the collection pending the determination of an appeal filed by the FIRS against the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, which earlier ruled in Rivers favour.
Umahi, who is the Chairman of the South-East Governors’ Forum, said: “In any gathering, the minority will have their say and the majority will have their way. For example, there was an issue that came up. I’m not sure it is clear to some of our colleagues on the issue of VAT but it is very clear to me.
“Ebonyi state took a stand as a state with our leaders on the issue of the VAT war that is going and so my deputy carried it on to say that this is what my governor is saying and this is what the state is saying and he went ahead to explain with some other deputies that represented their governors.
“But together they were in the minority and it didn’t stop the majority from coming up with their communiqué. When it comes to implementation and voicing out, I will continue to say: this is where I stand; if it is a choice, I will choose what would benefit my state.”
Umahi also said there is no state in the country that is not enjoying the help of other states, adding that “when they say that this VAT collection is part of the true restructuring, I said I never believe in the total restructuring; I believe in administrative restructuring.
“I have said that my state would not be viable and I will continue to say that more than 30 other states would not be viable; we should not break the states.
“Whatever thing we are doing, we have to think about the nation first. Let’s tarry a while and see how we can pass this river and then we can come to the fact of who is right and who is wrong.
“True federalism is not done in a day. If we want to do a restructuring, we have to have a gradual process to do that.”
