Finance Act Exempts N30,000 Minimum Wage Earners from Income Tax

By Ndubuisi Francis

The 2020 Finance Act recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari exempts workers under the minimum wage bracket of N30,000 from personal income tax.

The Act, which amended no fewer than 14 different fiscal laws, also contains over 80 changes in more than 14 laws.

Making a virtual presentation of the 2021 Budget in Abuja Tuesday, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, stated that the Act, among others, exempts workers within the N30,000 minimum wage bracket from personal income tax deductions.

At the public presentation of the budget, the Act, she added, also provides for a 30 per cent duty waiver on tractors from 35 per cent to 5 per cent and 25 per cent waiver on mass transit vehicles, from 35 per cent to 10 per cent.

On the 2020 Revised Budget performance, the minister said the federal government expended a total of N1.8 trillion on the execution of capital projects.

According to her, the N1.8 trillion represents about 89 per cent of the total provision for capital projects.

The minister explained that out of the amount spent, the sum of N118.37 billion was released for COVID-19 related capital expenditure.

Ahmed disclosed that while the federal government had projected the sum of N9.97 trillion expenditure for 2020, it actually spent about N10.08 trillion representing 101 per cent performance.

Debt service, she also stated, gulped N3.27 trillion, while personnel cost, including salaries and pensions accounted for N3.19 trillion.

Details later…