GOVERNOR AYADE'S GOOD: TAX EXEMPTION FOR PETTY TRADERS/SMALL BUSINESSES SHOULD BE EMULATED BY GOVERNOR OKOWA - AS AGAINST AYADE'S BAD OF OWING MAGISTRATE SALARIES FOR 26 MONTHS
March 23, 2021 | News
It is no news that the payment of frivolous levies/taxes, unilaterally introduced in Delta State, especially in Warri and environs, has become unbearable and worrisome and urgently needs to be addressed.
GOVERNOR AYADE'S GOOD: TAX EXEMPTION FOR PETTY TRADERS/SMALL BUSINESSES SHOULD BE EMULATED BY GOVERNOR OKOWA - AS AGAINST AYADE'S BAD OF OWING MAGISTRATE SALARIES FOR 26 MONTHS
It is no news that the payment of frivolous levies/taxes, unilaterally introduced in Delta State, especially in Warri and environs, has become unbearable and worrisome and urgently needs to be addressed. The existing Board of Internal Revenue and other Delta State Government Institutions and structures that stand as Local Government Councils in Delta State, through the umbrella of the Delta State Government Agencies, Ministries, as well as youths (often referred to as ‘Agberos’), are known to impose all kinds of levies/taxes on residents, business owners, motorists and others in Delta State on a daily, monthly and yearly basis. All they know how to do is to go about taxing the poor masses that are trying to make ends meet, for their private pockets and self-centered interests.
Few days ago, I confronted some young men harassing some petty traders along off Airport road in Ugboroke layout in Effurun, making them to realize that what they are doing was wrong. Also, I always see some young men wearing uniforms that do not describe who exactly they are working for, standing by around Airport road at the junction connecting the NNPC Housing Complex road, in-between Warri South and Uvwie LGAs, and harassing and extorting motorists on a daily basis. They are not there to control the traffic, but only waiting for motorists they will extort money from. And they are not men of the Delta State Traffic Management Authority. As far as I am concerned, they may be thugs wearing uniforms and working for the Warri South Local Government agency.
This is just one, out of the many instances of such extortions of the common masses by supposed government officials, all across the length and breadth of Delta State. Almost everywhere in Delta State, especially in Warri, Effurun, Ekpan, Ovwian, Orhuwhorun, Ugboroke, Patani, Sapele, Ughelli, Otor-Udu, Otu-Jeremi, Osubi, etc, Deltans and Nigerians in Delta State are frequently being harassed and exploited with one tax/levy or the other by these off-shoots of Delta State Government and its Local Government Councils and their ‘tentacles’.
Some of such outrageous levies for which the people in the stated areas of Delta State are being regularly robbed include; off-loading and loading charges, Building Permit, Health Approval Permit, Community Development levy, pick-up and bus stickers, car radio stickers, commercial vehicle stickers, extended tarpaulin levies, hawkers permit/levies, keke (tricycle) operation levies, fire extinguisher fees for Fire Safety Certificate, Private business premises levies, tenement rates/levies, Environmental Safety levies, etc. Then there is the gaseous emission/environmental pollution and affluent fees/charges perpetuated by the so-called Delta State Environmental Protection Agency (DELSEPA), that is bent on emphasizing the liability of “all” companies operating in Delta State to pay such levies, and so many other levies/charges too numerous to mention.
Small-scale businesses are not left out. A caterer who runs a small restaurant/bar for instance is expected to pay as much as N50, 000 or more. A hawker needs to pay for hawking permit. Imagine a hawker making a living on his petty trading being forced to cough out, for instance, an outrageous N1, 000 hawking permits or more, whereas his/her entire items of trade do not add up to the amount being demanded in the first place. People who run small businesses/stores are constantly harassed because of one levy/charge or the other. It is shameful that in a society where there is high level of unemployment, those who are struggling on their own to make ends meet, are taxed and levied arbitrary.
This why I am appealing to the Delta State Government led by Ifeanyi Okowa, to emulate the good example of his Cross Rivers State counterpart, Ben Ayade, who in a well-circulated report, ordered the State’s agency in-charge of internal revenue on how they should hence forth collect taxes in Cross Rivers State. In his words: “Your responsibility from today going forward, is to put an end to illegal taxation from people. We have a tax law here that prescribes those who are exempted from paying tax. All those categories of people, and those from time to time may be so announced by the governor, including every single hotel that has less than 50 rooms in Calabar and in the whole state, today are exempted from payment of tax.
“We have exempted all Okada drivers, taxi drivers, Airport taxi drivers, small saloon owners, small catering and restaurant points, mama-put, eatery points, all those small basic survival people selling of products on the road, struggling to earn a living, they have been exempted from today from paying tax. WE HAVE EXEMPTED THEM BECAUSE, IT IS BETTER FOR ME AS THE GOVERNOR, TO RATHER TASK MY BRAIN THAN TO TAX MY PEOPLE. And to all Crossriverians, you have the right for anybody who comes before you to demand for tax; you have the right to say stop, the governor has said we should not pay tax…. I mean, why would somebody take banana from their farm to go and sell, and then that person is being asked to pay tax? Why would somebody take groundnut to go the market to sell and somebody is there putting a check point on the road and collecting money from the groundnut seller? This is not Ben Ayade. It is not in my nature; I am not wired for such insensitivity to the common man…”
While I commend Ayade on his tax exemption law for small income earners, however, we are surprised that his administration was still owing the State's Magistrates salaries for 26 months. The situation has even forced a Cross River State Senior Magistrate, Her Worship, Rita Ititim, who joined other 29 protesters recently with her 5-month-old baby to protest at Governor Ben Ayade’s office over the non-payment of their 26 months salaries. So, the question is, why is Ayade not paying the State's Magistrates for 26 months? That is not a good report of the Governor. It is a serious sin of the Ayade administration to have allowed this to happen. And no State Government, especially the Delta State Government, should be seen to be in such situation.
Back to the subject issue of tax, what is more annoying in the case of Delta State, is that the State Government and its officials do not judiciously and transparently use the same tax collected for the single purpose of improving the daily lives of its people. They are not accountable for all the taxes/levies they generate from the common man, in providing all essential social public amenities and public services like we see in other developed climes. All we see and get from the Delta State Government officials and the Governor’s Aides, is singing praises of this administration. When in reality, the people are not happy with what is happening in the State.
This system of illegal taxes/levies have been observed running for years and encouraged by the ‘tentacles’ of the Delta State Government. The most disturbing part of all this is that these State and Local Government ‘tentacles’ that are collecting these obnoxious levies use all sorts of cooked-up/fabricated and outdated laws/decrees/Acts/Provisions (most of which urgently need to be repealed and thrown-away by the Delta State House of Assembly and the Delta State government), to extort and demand these levies from the poor unsuspecting masses. They hide under such draconian outdated laws to make the whole illegal extortion appear authentic and normal. A thorough look at all the so-called taxes/levies/charges, we would realize they do not in any way justify why they are being demanded in the first place. And this is because the Local Government Councils in Delta State have been non-existence for years.
It is absolutely wrong and an extortion of the highest order to have State Government, Local Government Councils and their ‘extensions’ to demand taxes/levies/charges for public services they have not been able to provide. In the UK and other advanced countries around the world, State or Provinces and Local Government Councils or Boroughs and their activities are daily felt by the people. The collection and extortion of taxes/levies/charges from the general public, without commensurate utilities and public necessities that would account for and justify such collections/taxes, is absolutely wicked, mindless and stealing from the people. And this has to stop!
Governor Okowa also needs to direct the police to arrest those described above, who use uniforms and what have you, to extort motorists on our roads. People should not be allowed to use the instruments of the State Government and influence, to daily extort monies from small and medium scale business owners, budding entrepreneurs, private motorists, commercial motorists, commercial tricycles, etc. If the likes of Ben Ayade can exempt these set of businesses from being taxed, even though he has goofed by owing the State's Magistrates several months of salaries; the Delta State Government under Okowa can do same in the area of tax exemption. The Delta State Government and those in the State House of Assembly, should apply wisdom and caution in doing some of these things so that it cannot be used to harass and exploit business owners in the State. These are not the kind of incentives that will attract investors in the State. If anything, it will only scare them away. It is high time we started emulating what is going on in other parts of the developed world.
Zik Gbemre.
March 23, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
It is no news that the payment of frivolous levies/taxes, unilaterally introduced in Delta State, especially in Warri and environs, has become unbearable and worrisome and urgently needs to be addressed. The existing Board of Internal Revenue and other Delta State Government Institutions and structures that stand as Local Government Councils in Delta State, through the umbrella of the Delta State Government Agencies, Ministries, as well as youths (often referred to as ‘Agberos’), are known to impose all kinds of levies/taxes on residents, business owners, motorists and others in Delta State on a daily, monthly and yearly basis. All they know how to do is to go about taxing the poor masses that are trying to make ends meet, for their private pockets and self-centered interests.
Few days ago, I confronted some young men harassing some petty traders along off Airport road in Ugboroke layout in Effurun, making them to realize that what they are doing was wrong. Also, I always see some young men wearing uniforms that do not describe who exactly they are working for, standing by around Airport road at the junction connecting the NNPC Housing Complex road, in-between Warri South and Uvwie LGAs, and harassing and extorting motorists on a daily basis. They are not there to control the traffic, but only waiting for motorists they will extort money from. And they are not men of the Delta State Traffic Management Authority. As far as I am concerned, they may be thugs wearing uniforms and working for the Warri South Local Government agency.
This is just one, out of the many instances of such extortions of the common masses by supposed government officials, all across the length and breadth of Delta State. Almost everywhere in Delta State, especially in Warri, Effurun, Ekpan, Ovwian, Orhuwhorun, Ugboroke, Patani, Sapele, Ughelli, Otor-Udu, Otu-Jeremi, Osubi, etc, Deltans and Nigerians in Delta State are frequently being harassed and exploited with one tax/levy or the other by these off-shoots of Delta State Government and its Local Government Councils and their ‘tentacles’.
Some of such outrageous levies for which the people in the stated areas of Delta State are being regularly robbed include; off-loading and loading charges, Building Permit, Health Approval Permit, Community Development levy, pick-up and bus stickers, car radio stickers, commercial vehicle stickers, extended tarpaulin levies, hawkers permit/levies, keke (tricycle) operation levies, fire extinguisher fees for Fire Safety Certificate, Private business premises levies, tenement rates/levies, Environmental Safety levies, etc. Then there is the gaseous emission/environmental pollution and affluent fees/charges perpetuated by the so-called Delta State Environmental Protection Agency (DELSEPA), that is bent on emphasizing the liability of “all” companies operating in Delta State to pay such levies, and so many other levies/charges too numerous to mention.
Small-scale businesses are not left out. A caterer who runs a small restaurant/bar for instance is expected to pay as much as N50, 000 or more. A hawker needs to pay for hawking permit. Imagine a hawker making a living on his petty trading being forced to cough out, for instance, an outrageous N1, 000 hawking permits or more, whereas his/her entire items of trade do not add up to the amount being demanded in the first place. People who run small businesses/stores are constantly harassed because of one levy/charge or the other. It is shameful that in a society where there is high level of unemployment, those who are struggling on their own to make ends meet, are taxed and levied arbitrary.
This why I am appealing to the Delta State Government led by Ifeanyi Okowa, to emulate the good example of his Cross Rivers State counterpart, Ben Ayade, who in a well-circulated report, ordered the State’s agency in-charge of internal revenue on how they should hence forth collect taxes in Cross Rivers State. In his words: “Your responsibility from today going forward, is to put an end to illegal taxation from people. We have a tax law here that prescribes those who are exempted from paying tax. All those categories of people, and those from time to time may be so announced by the governor, including every single hotel that has less than 50 rooms in Calabar and in the whole state, today are exempted from payment of tax.
“We have exempted all Okada drivers, taxi drivers, Airport taxi drivers, small saloon owners, small catering and restaurant points, mama-put, eatery points, all those small basic survival people selling of products on the road, struggling to earn a living, they have been exempted from today from paying tax. WE HAVE EXEMPTED THEM BECAUSE, IT IS BETTER FOR ME AS THE GOVERNOR, TO RATHER TASK MY BRAIN THAN TO TAX MY PEOPLE. And to all Crossriverians, you have the right for anybody who comes before you to demand for tax; you have the right to say stop, the governor has said we should not pay tax…. I mean, why would somebody take banana from their farm to go and sell, and then that person is being asked to pay tax? Why would somebody take groundnut to go the market to sell and somebody is there putting a check point on the road and collecting money from the groundnut seller? This is not Ben Ayade. It is not in my nature; I am not wired for such insensitivity to the common man…”
While I commend Ayade on his tax exemption law for small income earners, however, we are surprised that his administration was still owing the State's Magistrates salaries for 26 months. The situation has even forced a Cross River State Senior Magistrate, Her Worship, Rita Ititim, who joined other 29 protesters recently with her 5-month-old baby to protest at Governor Ben Ayade’s office over the non-payment of their 26 months salaries. So, the question is, why is Ayade not paying the State's Magistrates for 26 months? That is not a good report of the Governor. It is a serious sin of the Ayade administration to have allowed this to happen. And no State Government, especially the Delta State Government, should be seen to be in such situation.
Back to the subject issue of tax, what is more annoying in the case of Delta State, is that the State Government and its officials do not judiciously and transparently use the same tax collected for the single purpose of improving the daily lives of its people. They are not accountable for all the taxes/levies they generate from the common man, in providing all essential social public amenities and public services like we see in other developed climes. All we see and get from the Delta State Government officials and the Governor’s Aides, is singing praises of this administration. When in reality, the people are not happy with what is happening in the State.
This system of illegal taxes/levies have been observed running for years and encouraged by the ‘tentacles’ of the Delta State Government. The most disturbing part of all this is that these State and Local Government ‘tentacles’ that are collecting these obnoxious levies use all sorts of cooked-up/fabricated and outdated laws/decrees/Acts/Provisions (most of which urgently need to be repealed and thrown-away by the Delta State House of Assembly and the Delta State government), to extort and demand these levies from the poor unsuspecting masses. They hide under such draconian outdated laws to make the whole illegal extortion appear authentic and normal. A thorough look at all the so-called taxes/levies/charges, we would realize they do not in any way justify why they are being demanded in the first place. And this is because the Local Government Councils in Delta State have been non-existence for years.
It is absolutely wrong and an extortion of the highest order to have State Government, Local Government Councils and their ‘extensions’ to demand taxes/levies/charges for public services they have not been able to provide. In the UK and other advanced countries around the world, State or Provinces and Local Government Councils or Boroughs and their activities are daily felt by the people. The collection and extortion of taxes/levies/charges from the general public, without commensurate utilities and public necessities that would account for and justify such collections/taxes, is absolutely wicked, mindless and stealing from the people. And this has to stop!
Governor Okowa also needs to direct the police to arrest those described above, who use uniforms and what have you, to extort motorists on our roads. People should not be allowed to use the instruments of the State Government and influence, to daily extort monies from small and medium scale business owners, budding entrepreneurs, private motorists, commercial motorists, commercial tricycles, etc. If the likes of Ben Ayade can exempt these set of businesses from being taxed, even though he has goofed by owing the State's Magistrates several months of salaries; the Delta State Government under Okowa can do same in the area of tax exemption. The Delta State Government and those in the State House of Assembly, should apply wisdom and caution in doing some of these things so that it cannot be used to harass and exploit business owners in the State. These are not the kind of incentives that will attract investors in the State. If anything, it will only scare them away. It is high time we started emulating what is going on in other parts of the developed world.
Zik Gbemre.
March 23, 2021
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes