By Princewill Ekwujuru

The Managing Director of Airtel Nigeria, Rajan Swaroop has decried the spate of multiple taxation and regulation in the Industry, stressing that telecoms operators are groaning under heavy financial demands by government agencies.

Swaroop who spoke at the 2012 Edition of the West African Information and Communications Congress (WAFICT) in Lagos said independent tax consultants working for different Local, State and Federal Governments are making life unbearable for telecoms companies as they slam outrageous levies and taxes on operators.

Swaroop, who was represented by Osondu Nwokoro, Regulatory Affairs Director, said, aside the financial harassment from different government bodies; many telecoms operators are unable to plan their operations due to multiple regulations.

His words, “It is important that we understand that multiple taxation and regulation are two different issues. For instance, if a particular operator has a base station in a particular community, he is faced with the challenge of paying all manner of levies and taxes to different governmental agencies for just that base station. Also, he is faced with the challenge of multiple regulations from different government agencies.”

“At the end of the day, the customer is made to suffer for this as some of these agencies usually shut down base stations, thereby preventing engineers from performing routine maintenance work. Just imagine an operator with more than 2,000 base stations. Indeed, the impact is huge and customers are made to suffer unjustly,” he said.

He also noted that government is also losing revenue as independent tax consultants are raking in handsome profits from the exercise. “Without a doubt, if telecoms operators are making more money, it means more taxes for government. But if they are making losses or less profit, government gets little or nothing.”

He also cautioned that the twin challenges of multiple taxation and  regulations can lead to loss of Foreign Direct Investment, lack of cooperation from telecoms operators and failure on the part of government to create real value for the citizens.

To end the current challenges, Swaroop advocated for the declaration of telecoms infrastructure as critical national infrastructure just as he commended the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for setting up a task force team, the Industry Working Group (IWG) to address the issue of multiple taxation and multiple regulations.