Lagos House of Assembly: passes VAT, Anti Open grazing Bills

The Lagos State House of Assembly on Thursday passed the Value Added Tax (VAT) bill to enable the state government to collect VAT instead of the Federal Government.

The passage of the bill followed court ruling that in Rivers that statutorily, state governments and not the Federal Government, through the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS should collect VAT.

On Wednesday, the Governor of Rivers, Nyesom Wike, said the state it will begin the collection of VAT from business owners in the state according to the new law.

The bill had on Monday scaled the second reading as the lawmakers debated on it extensively during plenary of the Lagos House of Assembly.

The two bills were passed after a unanimous vote by the lawmakers at a sitting where they were read the third time.

Based on this, the Lagos Assembly put in motion move to pass the VAT bill put forward to it by the state government last week.

The bill was giving accelerated hearing by the House, which culminated in its passage on Thursday.

The Assembly also passed the Anti-Open Grazing Bill banning open grazing in any part of Lagos.

Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa directed the Acting Clerk , Olalekan Onafeko, to transmit a clean copy to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for assent.

On the Anti-Grazing Bill, Lagos is behind schedule, as the lawmakers passed the bill after the September 1, 2021 deadline set by the Southern Governors’ Forum in May.