News
VAT Increase takes effect from 1st February – FG
Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning announced on Thursday 16th January that the increased VAT from 5 to 7.5% will take effect from 1st February 2020.
The minister who made this revelation at the inauguration of the Chairman and Board members of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in Abuja.
She said;
“I want to state that one of the key provisions in the finance act 2019 that have elicited a lot of interest is the increase in the VAT from 5% to 7.5%, and to remind us all, the finance bill has made copious provisions to improve the ease of doing business; so we have a category of companies that have turnover of 25% and below that will be paying no taxes at all, and also we have reduced tax rates for companies that have turnover from 25 million to 100 million from 30% to 30%.
“The essence of this is to encourage formalization of businesses from the informal sector and also to encourage businesses to grow and become more productive, thereby increasing employment and also meeting the commitment of Mr. President to remove 100 million Nigerians out of poverty over the next 10 years.
“The effective date for the VAT increase from 5-7.5% will be the 1st of February 2020.”
The NBA All-Star game has now to be called The Kobe Bryant MVP Award. NBA commissioner, Adam Silver made this announcement on Saturday 15th February.
The Kobe Bryant MVP Award will be given this Sunday at the closing of this year’s All-Star Game in Chicago. Both teams will be captained by Giannis Antetokounmpo and Lebron James respectively. Team Lebron will put on No 2 and team Giannis will put on No 24. These two numbers were worn by Gianna, Kobe’s daughter and Kobe Bryant.
Recall that Kobe won the All-Star Game MVP in 2002, 2007, 2009, and 2011. Also, he played as the youngest player to feature in the All-Star Game at 19 in 1998.
Modibbo Kawu, the DG of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, has been put on suspension by President Buhari. This came following his corruption charges by the Independent Corrupt Practices, ICPC.
This development was confirmed by Armstrong Idachaba, NBC’s Director of Broadcast Monitoring. Further, the most senior director in the commission has been directed to take over from Modibbo Kawu.
Modibbo Kawu is currently facing a 12-count charge bordering on money laundering, abuse of office, and misleading a public officer with the intent of defrauding the government.
So, this contravenes Section 26 (1) (c) of the Corrupt Practices and other Related Offenses Act 2000 and punishable under Section 19 of the same Act.
Beisdes, Modibbo was first arraigned in May 2019 over the alleged misappropriation of N 2.5 billion for the digital switch-over (DSO) program of the government.
The Health Ministry in Egypt has confirmed the first case of the deadly Coronavirus. The authorities made this disclosure on Friday 14th February in a press release. They said the World Health Organization has been informed and the patient is in isolation for monitoring and treatment.
The patient’s nationality was not given. However, Egypt is the 28th country in the world to record Coronavirus and the first in Africa.
So, over 64,000 cases of the Coronavirus have been diagnosed around the world and 1,363 persons have been confirmed dead since its outbreak in Wuhan, China
