NECA Advocates Tax Relief, Job Retention Scheme For Manufacturing, MSMEs Sector.

The Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA) has advocated for the implementation of a tax relief policy and the establishment of a wholistic job retention scheme to facilitate activities of business operators in manufacturing as well as Micro Small and Medium Enterprises sector of the nation’s economy.

The association which is umbrella body of employers of labour across major public and private sector organisations recently conducted an industry wide research in which it highlighted Covid  – 19 impact on businesses in Nigeria.

It noted  that as part of the detailed findings flowing from research that an aggressive approach to tax collection in the country  will be counter productive in view of the prevailing economic situations occasioned by the Covid – 19 global health pandemic.

Hence, the association cautioned that government  across all levels should allow  businesses to stabilize well enough before they embark on any aggressive tax revenue drive.

Giving highlights  of the association’s research findings recently was the Director of Membership Services at NECA, Adewale Oyerinde while speaking recently during an online media interactive forum monitored in Lagos.

Oyerinde observed that part of the association’s advocacy flowing from the research includes that,  government  should render support to employers on  salary payments, considering businesses that are unable to meet salary obligations and who are struggling to keep afloat “as  government could not deal with the issue  economic recovery from one end”

According to him, “one of the established findings flowing from  the research is the fact that, Covid – 19 will be around for a longer time, and the challenges of working the new normal will always be there”

“We’ve asked government to come up with a job retention scheme. A job retention scheme that will be all-encompassing, a scheme that will enable businesses to continue to operate, a scheme that will help businesses to keep employments, a scheme that will help businesses, not only in the short-term to remain but in a long-term to be sustainable,  and part of this is tax reliefs”

“At a point we said there’s need for government to relax the lockdown because we know sustaining the lockdown will translate to more businesses facing more difficulties, and when businesses are closing down it translates into unemployment,  unemployment translate into other social issues”

“Businesses must brace up for technology, teleworking, working from home and brace up also to provide those infrastructures that will enabled employees to actually work and work effectively from home”

“For us we feel, deal with the cause, not the effect. Start recovery from business issues, support businesses to be sustainable. Once they are sustainable, you have dealt with significantly the issue of unemployment. And once u deal with the issue of unemployment, it has a reverberating effects on the economy as it were”.

Reacting to enquiries as to how many of the association members have benefitted so far from the recent N50 billion CBN intervention package for small and medium scale enterprises, the NECA boss explain that it was arguable to determine the number of beneficiaries of the stimulus package, but noted  that knowing the beneficiaries will require that  CBN provides available data of beneficiaries.

“It’s arguable to say that businesses have actually benefited from the intervention, except the agency, the CBN will come and share those data,   that these are the businesses that have benefitted, these are the SME that have actually collected those facilities. These are the multinationals that have collected, then it will give us an opportunity to make an appropriate comment on that” he added.