TUC advocates tax holidays to boost economy Over COVID-19
The Trade Union Congress (TUC), has called on the Federal Government to grant tax holidays to business owners in the country to enable them to cushion the adverse economic effects associated with the outbreak of coronavirus.
TUC President Mr Quadri Olaleye made the call in Abuja during an interactive parley with journalist.
Olaleye said that it is a global practice to grant tax holidays during economic crisis, adding that the coronavirus outbreak has impacted negatively on the Nigerian economy.
He said: “The expectations of workers from government is that the Nigerian government should assist the people.
“The government should also look at how it can cushion the effects for business owners, especially providing adequate financing, to enable them continue to run their businesses. “Budget some amount of money to rescue businesses, especially people in entertainment and transport sectors.
“Everything is not about taking away from businesses, in situation like this, one of the ways you can encourage people is to give them tax holidays. “So, we (TUC) are going to take a step towards that, to see how we can discuss with government to give tax holidays to encourage businessmen, so that more people are not pushed into the labour market.”
On the new minimum wage, the TUC president commended the Federal Government for implementing the pay rise. He also commended the states that have implemented the new minimum wage and urged others yet to do so to commence implementation.
He said About 80 per cent of the states have implemented the minimum wage and I want to salute their courage. “We have few states that have not implemented. For those ones, we have issued out letters of ultimatum to them and we are going to take action.
“When TUC issues ultimatum, we follow it up and for the few states that have not implemented, I am sure they are ready for us. “We are going to shut down the states and let us see how they are going to perform if they are not ready to pay the minimum wage’” Olaleye added.
The TUC president called for more collaboration with the media to enable the Congress to serve the people better. According to him, the media is key to ensuring that the TUC lived up to its responsibility and accountable to the people.