President Muhammadu Buhari has officially signed the 2020 Finance Bill into law, which seeks to increase the value-added tax (VAT) from 5 percent to 7.5 percent.

Buhari signed the bill into law on Monday after its passage by the National Assembly and subsequent forwarding by the legislature to the President for assent.

The president announced this move on his verified Twitter page saying he is pleased to announce that he signed into law the Finance Bill, 2019.

I am pleased to announce that this morning I signed into Law the Finance Bill, 2019.

— Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) January 13, 2020

Also, a statement released by Mr Buhari’s spokesperson, Femi Adesina, confirming the signing of the bill, reads:

“President Muhammadu Buhari Monday in State House signed the 2020 Finance Bill into law. This is sequel to its passage by the National Assembly and subsequent forwarding by the legislature to the President for assent.

“Recall that President Buhari, while presenting the 2020 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly, had also presented the Finance Bill and said: “This Finance Bill has five strategic objectives, in terms of achieving incremental, but necessary, changes to our fiscal laws.

“These objectives are; Promoting fiscal equity by mitigating instances of regressive taxation; Reforming domestic tax laws to align with global best practices; Introducing tax incentives for investments in infrastructure and capital markets; Supporting Micro, Small and Medium-sized businesses in line with our Ease of Doing Business Reforms; and Raising Revenues for Government.

“The draft Finance Bill proposes an increase of the VAT rate from five per cent to 7.5 per cent, as such, the 2020 Appropriation Bill is based on this new VAT rate,” he added.

“With the assent, there will be more revenue to finance key government projects especially in the areas of health, education and critical infrastructure.”