By Alade Adisa
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has said the federal government will kill public tertiary institutions and education in the country with its proposal to phase out the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, by 2030.
According to the union, such a proposal would not only make futile all the efforts put into setting up the Fund, but would also take tertiary education out of the reach of the poor.
The position of the union was made known to New Daily Prime by the National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, while reacting to the provisions of some sections in the Nigeria Tax Reform Bill 2024 currently before the National Assembly.
Four bills, namely: The Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, NTB, the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill 2024, NTAB, the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Bill 2024 and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill 2024 are being considered by the National Assembly.
The main aim of all the bills is to consolidate various legal frameworks regarding taxation.
Part X of the NTB 2024 covers Development Levy which is imposed on the assessable profits of all companies chargeable to tax under Chapters 2 and 3 of the bill. Education Tax, from which TETFund benefits, falls under Development Levy in the proposed bill.
Also, NELFUND Act 2023, NITDA Act 2007 and NASENI Act Cap N3LFN 2004 as amended, made them to benefit from taxes, levies and duties collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service from some public quoted companies.
However, the bone of contention is on the provisions of Section 59 (3) of the NTB 2024 which states how Development Levy is to be shared among TETFund, NELFUND (Student Loan Scheme), NASENI and NITDA beginning from 2025 to 2030 and beyond.
The proposed bill states that in 2025 and 2026, TETFund would get 50 percent of all the Development Levy collected, NITDA 20%, NASENI 5% and NELFUND 25%.
In 2027, 2028 and 2029, TETFund 66.7%, and NELFUND 33.3% , while NASENI and NITDA will get nothing.
In 2030 and beyond it is NELFUND that will get 100 percent of the levy, while the others get nothing.
Osodeke, commenting on this, noted that when TETFund is denied its percentage of Development Levy, which is the Education Tax being collected now, the government is saying it should cease to exist.
“With all the Development Levy going to Student Loan Scheme or NELFUND, public tertiary institutions will be forced to increase tuition fees. That will surely be exorbitant. Also, phasing out TETFund is going to be a threat to tertiary education in Nigeria and all the gains of the struggle put up to set up Education Tax Fund which later became TETFund would just be a waste.
” If you go to our public tertiary institutions, you would know that if not for the Fund, many would have collapsed as a result of lack of basic facilities. In fact, on some campuses, anything you see that looks decent and new has been provided by TETFund, so we appeal to the federal government not to kill tertiary institutions in the country and reconsider this plan,” he said.
