TheCable

Jimoh Ibrahim, governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo state, says he will abolish personal income tax if elected into office.

Speaking on Monday at a governorship debate organised by Channels Television, Enough is Enough Nigeria (EIE) and Policy and Legacy Advocacy Centre (PLAC), Ibrahim said the state’s economy could not be driven by taxation because of the recession.

He explained that he would set up a special means of raising funds that would be used to develop the state.

“My leadership is to create wealth, the way to do that is not to ensure heavy reliance on federal allocation and immediately after the swearing in, as the governor of Ondo state, the first thing I’m going to do is eradicate all form of taxes,” Ibrahim said.

“Personal income tax will be eradicated. In a recession, you don’t drive the economy with taxation, people will be happy that they are not paying any PAYE again.

“Because we have eradicated personal income tax, we will now setup what we call N10,000 for development of infrastructure in Ondo state. N10,000 multiply by just 3 million complaints that is N20 billion in a year, time four that is N80 billion, that is enough to develop our road.

“We are talking about innovation in revenue not federal allocation,” he added.

However, Olusola Oke, governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), disagreed with Ibrahim on the abolishment of personal income tax.

“I will not cancel personal income tax, I will not cancel it, it’s statutory, I will follow it and ensure that the mechanism for collecting our internal revenue is certain,” he said.

“It will be inhuman for anyone to increase taxation but PAYE attached to remuneration we will sustain it.”

Oke added that he would renegotiate the debt of the state in the bid to reduce the burden of servicing it.

Olu Agunloye, governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), said he would generate funds by giving out “concessions”.

“We are also trying to make sure that the economy that has been frittered away will be regenerated in a way that cannot be made public at this time,” he said.

Rotimi Akeredolu, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), failed to turn up for the debate.

The election is billed to take place on November 26.