A member of the Federal Government commissioned Economic Recovery and Growth Plan has revealed this to our reporter, at the weekend. According to the source, the government would raise Value Added Tax, on the recommendation of the committee and adopted by the Federal Government, from its previous five per cent to 7.5 per cent. The initial recommendation, according to the source, was 10 per cent, but was cut by 2.5 per cent to ease the burden on the citizens of Nigeria. The announcement on the tax increments, the source said would be announced by the President Muhammad Buhari this week. According to the source, 85 per cent of the money generated from the tax increase would go to state governments, to enable them pay salaries and contractors in their respective states. But analysts are concerned that this would increase financial burden on the Nigerian people, especially since there is no evidence that state government would pay owed salary earners and contractors in their respective states. However, the source said raising taxes was necessary for increased in government spending to cushion the effects of economic recession on the people. According increased in government spending would ameliorate the effect of recession on business and household spending The source however counselled that it was important that the Federal Government understood that raising taxes was just a palliative measure, and not the exact solution to the recession. The source recommended that subsidies be removed from the consumption goods and be given to the production sector of the economy. He also called for empowerment for investment in infrastructure to support the productive sector of the economy. ]]>