The Nigeria Tax and Fiscal Bill seeking to increase the Value Added Tax from 5% to 7.5% yesterday passed second reading in the Senate. This was despite the objection by some senators who claimed that they did not know the details of the bill because its copies were not made available to them. Their objection was overruled by Senate President Ahmad Lawan. Senate Majority Leader Yahaya Abdullahi said the bill had five strategic objectives including promoting fiscal equity by mitigating instances of regressive taxation, reforming domestic tax laws to align with global best practices, introducing tax incentives for investment in infrastructure, supporting ongoing ease of doing business reforms and raising revenues for government, including proposal to increase the Value Added Tax from 5 percent to 7.5%.