Coronavirus: Suspend VAT Immediately, Print More Naira Notes, Tinubu Tells FG

*Says Nigerian health system can’t tackle large scale Coronavirus

All Progressives Congress leader, Bola Tinubu, has asked the Federal Government to print more naira notes in order to save the economy from collapse even as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to bite harder.

Tinubu said this in a statement he wrote in commemoration of his 68th birthday.

The former governor of Lagos State said the United States Federal Reserve had printed more dollars in order to boost the economy.

He said Nigeria could also do the same.

Tinubu added, “Already, the price of oil has fallen to less than 30 dollars a barrel. This will bring a dollar shortfall. This does not, however, necessitate a corresponding shortfall in public sector naira expenditures.

“The US controls dollar issuance. We control naira issuance as is our sovereign right. Just as America has used its sovereign right to issue its currency to stave economic disaster, so too may Nigeria issue naira for the same purpose.”

Amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic, All Progressives Congress stalwart, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has asked the Federal Government to stop collection of the Value Added Tax immediately.

Recall that the government of the President Muhammadu Buhari, had last month increased VAT from five per cent to 7.5 per cent.

However, Tinubu said the government must reduce the sufferings of Nigerians by introducing tax cuts while the Central Bank of Nigeria must reduce interest rates

Tinubu said this in a statement he wrote in commemoration of his 68th birthday.

He wrote, “Government should announce a tax credit or partial tax reduction for companies or firms. VAT should be suspended for the next two to four months. This will help lower import costs and protect against shortages.

“We need to protect the people from food shortages and high prices. As such, we must quickly improve farm-to-market delivery of agricultural produce. Also, government should initiate a crash program to decrease spoilage of agricultural produce by construction of storage facilities in local marketplaces in and around major cities and towns throughout the country.”

He, therefore, called on the government and the citizens to do everything to curb the spread of the virus.

He said, “The public health care systems of developed nations have been overwhelmed by this virus. They are running out of equipment and healthy doctors.

“Our public health care system is much smaller and less equipped than those in Europe and North America. We cannot afford to put undue pressure on our system because it cannot bear the great weight of a pandemic.

“Thus, it is incumbent on us to thoroughly implement and obey social safety and distancing techniques so that we halt the spread of the disease and keep hospitalization to the barest possible minimum.”