Ben Ayade Presents 2020 Budget, Exempts Small Scale Businesses From Paying Tax

The Cross River State Governor, Prof Ben Ayade, on Thursday, presented the 2020 budget to the House of Assembly.

The budget estimate tagged, ‘Budget of olimpotic meristemasis’ is pegged at N1,100,167,507.

Ayade described the budget as one anchored on a belief “in the spiritual force, which is the third energy.”
He said the budget would “catalyse into existence a great opportunity for us all to put our hands and legs on the pedal and fill it off.”

Giving a breakdown of the budget, Ayade said N911bn, representing 82.8 per cent of the estimates would be for capital estimates, while N188bn, representing 17.2 per cent, would be spent on recurrent expenditure.

He said N44bn was allocated to the health sector, N38bn for education, N22bn for agriculture and N85bn to the New Cities Project.

The governor announced plans to put in place anti-tax agents to ensure that the tax policy of his administration was sustained.
Ayade added, “Small-scale businesses like barbershops, hair salons and other agencies are hereby exempted from taxation.”

He also abolished the daily payments of N500 to N1,000 levies by taxis in the state, noting that they would pay N2,000 every month.

Ayade stated that a flat monthly tax would rather be paid by low-income earners while government would continue to legalise hawking by creating hawking bases in the state.
He said the budget looked unachievable but his administration was determined to actualise it and sought the cooperation of the legislature.

In his response, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Eteng Williams, promised to give the necessary support, saying the budget would be approved before the end of the year.