Benin Zone ASUU kicks against Tax Reform Bill, says it’ll kill TETFUND

The Benin Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), on Friday, kicked against the Tax Reform Bill proposed for tertiary institutions by the Federal Government.

The academic union, which described the Bill as “scandalous,” said that foisting the Tax Reform on the nation’s tertiary institutions was not only detrimental and harmful to the educational well-being of the Nigerian people, but it was also capable of killing the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).

The Benin Zone of ASUU, which comprises the University of Benin, Benin City; Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma; Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko; Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa; Delta State University, Abraka; Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun; University of Delta, Agbor; Dennis Osadebay University, Asaba; and Delta State University of Science and Technology, Ozoro, made their positions known at a press conference held in Benin City, the Edo State capital.

Addressing newsmen, ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Professor Monday Lewis Igbafeh, said after a careful review, the Union was alarmed by Section 59(3) of the Nigeria Tax Bill (NTB) 2024, which states that only 50% of the Development Levy would be made available to TETFund in 2025, while NITDA, NISENI, and NELFUND would share the remaining percentages.

“Our Union, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), is compelled once again to address you on the Nigerian Government’s deliberate ploy to destroy the education system of this country through a deliberate act to wind up a critical institution that has been the backbone of the continued sustenance of tertiary institutions in the country.

“Recall that our Union, ASUU, has been entangled with the Nigerian government over deliberate starvation of funds, which resulted in parlous infrastructural decay of teaching facilities, students’ welfare, low staff remuneration, and retardation in public universities in the country. Nigeria remains one of the worst countries in the world with abysmally low annual budgetary allocation to education.

Against the 26% benchmark of budgetary allocation to education prescribed by the United Nations, Nigeria in the past few years has continued to oscillate between 5% and 7%, with the Tinubu government affirming retaining 7% budgetary allocation to education in its 2025 Budget.

“As a Union of intellectuals, we vehemently reject this tax reform bill, especially for its attempt to erode the concrete relevance of TETFund to the infrastructural development, postgraduate training, and research capacity building in Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions.

“We are calling for mass resistance against this potent threat to the lifeline of tertiary education in our country because the impending abrogation of TETFund will take public tertiary education many years back and undermine the modest gains in repositioning Nigerian universities for global reckoning and transformative development,” ASUU added.

         READ MORE FROM: NIGERIAN TRIBUNE