The Commissioner for Information, Public Orientation and Strategy, Declan Emelunba in a statement, berated the PDP for its ignorance over what he described as dynamics of Value Added Tax in the economy of the State.
Emelunba stated that contrary to what he regards the PDP’s submission as mischievous and ignorant, stating that VAT is a consumption tax collected by the Federal Government that does not correlate with economic growth or productivity of any State.
The PDP had earlier accused Uzodinma of not doing enough to stir up the economy of the State, blaming him for the lack of roads, non-payment of minimum wage, and insecurity in the State.
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Reacting to the issue, the Commissioner for Information dismissed the allegations, maintaining that the State Chapter of the PDP goofed again to deceive the public with what he termed as false and misleading information.
He described PDP’s claims as the height of economic illiteracy, noting that if a State’s economy was measured by VAT earnings, then Imo State’s GDP could not have been the fourth highest out of the 36 States of the Federation.
The commissioner noted that the low rate of VAT Collection in the State is a result of factors independent of the economic and infrastructural policies of the State.
Emelumba further noted that while the Government has no control over businesses and their operational capability, including how much they remit as VAT, the State Government has created the enabling environment to attract them to the State, adding that it was why the State economy was growing faster than that of many States.
he maintained that the State recently won the World Bank’s trophy under the States Action on Business Enabling Reforms , SABER, and was rewarded with Four Million United States Dollars.