The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says scrapping education tax would ruin public tertiary institutions.
While speaking on a TV programme, ASUU president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, argued that education stakeholders were not consulted before President Ahmed Tinubu send the four tax reform bills to the national assembly.
On October 3, President Bola Tinubu asked the national assembly to consider and pass four tax reform bills.
They include the Nigeria Tax Bill, the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Bill, and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill.
The bills have been the subject of controversy and heated debates in various circles, including the education sector.
A component of the reforms would scrap the education tax which is the primary revenue source of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
TETFund oversees the disbursement of education tax to public tertiary institutions in Nigeria as supplementary support for infrastructure development, staff training, and research.
Osodeke faulted the tax bills, saying scrapping TETFund’s revenue source will “destroy public universities” and “ensure that the children of the poor remain slaves”.
Osodeke said: “The only source of funding is from TETFund, so when you destroy it, you have destroyed public universities.
“TETFund is a product of ASUU. You can’t make the tax laws without meeting with ASUU for inputs before proposing it before the national assembly. The vice-chancellors were not consulted; pro-chancellors were not consulted.”
Bayo Onanuga, special adviser on information and strategy to the president, had clarified that no part of the proposed tax bills recommends scrapping TETFund in 2029.
“For decades, businesses, investors, and private sector players in Nigeria have complained of being overburdened by a myriad of taxes and levies, including those earmarked to fund various government agencies and initiatives,” he said.
Taiwo Oyedele, chair of the presidential committee on tax reforms, added that the changes are an attempt to unify Nigeria’s multiple tax systems.
Responding, Osodeke accused the federal government of “playing with words” to “systematically” phase out TETFund in favour of its student loan scheme overseen by the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFund).
“When you go around Nigerian universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education today, 90 percent of the physical structures you have there are products of TETFund,” he said.
“But this tax bill is saying that by the year 2030, it should be scrapped and merged with NASENI and NITDA and then reduced to 2 percent.”
Osodeke added: “Outside the country, companies fund universities. They give grants, which companies are not doing in Nigeria. The only one they are doing is this 3 percent. They should not look at it as tax but as an investment to produce graduates that would work for them.
“Look at the sharing. By 2025-2026, TETFund will access 50 percent of the consolidated fund. By 2026-2027, it will reduce to 33 percent. In 2030, TETFund will have zero.”
