Highlights of FEC Meeting

09 Dec Highlights of FEC Meeting

The virtual meeting of the Federal Executive Council yesterday was  presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Among the approvals at the meeting were:

* Approval of the 2021 Finance Bill 2021. Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed, said the bill, which is currently before the national assembly, focuses on tax as well as reviewing and amending some 11 fiscal laws.

But she said, “Again, to emphasise also that we shied away from addressing any changes to the VAT regime or the current Stamp Duty regime because of the current ongoing litigations by some states in those two areas.”

Among others, she said the bill is to empower the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to collect company’s income tax  from profits made by foreign digital companies with “significant presence” in the country.

* The approval of a new regulatory system to support the fight against insecurity through a telecommunication equipment to detect and block fraudsters using different SIM cards. It is to be implemented at the cost of N804,122,897.50 by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.

* Approval of Advanced Digital Awareness Programme for Tertiary Institutions at the federal and state level. Also to be implemented by the NCC, 6000 e-pact mobile devices are to be distributed to higher institutions all over the country to ease the use of online facilities.

* Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola said the government was making efforts to step up security around the correctional centres especially following the jailbreaks in Owerri, Oyo, Kabba and Jos in the last few months. He said he does not see any need for the call of his resignation because “it’s not for lack of preparedness that the attacks were successful.”