•I was humiliated, detained for two days by Revenue Task Force —Victim

•We are dying under government’s multiple taxation in Anambra

•Our tax rate not high —Enugu govt

By Anayo Okoli, Vincent Ujumadu, Dennis Agbo, Chidi Nkpopara, Steve Oko, Chinonso Alozie, Ugochukwu Alaribe, Alumona Ukwueze & Nwabueze Okonkwo

BUSINESS owners and other residents of the South East region are crying out over multiple taxes and levies imposed on them by the State Governments, which they said are putting a lot of negative pressure on their businesses already being weighed down by the national economic hardship.

Some of them also complained about the unrefined way and manner the agents employ to  forcefully get these taxes and levies from them. Many government revenue agents and consultants engage the services of touts who harass and intimidate the people in a bid to coerce them to pay these levies, some of which are exorbitant.

I was humiliated, detained for two days for

no offence —Nwizu

Narrating his experience with revenue task force in Aba, the manager of a haulage and logistics company, Chinonso Nwizu, said that he was humiliated and detained for two days in Aba, by the Abia State Government taskforce on daily tickets under the office of the Governor’s Special Assistant on Internally Generated Revenue, IGR.

Nwizu told  SEV that he was arrested and detained and taken to a magistrate court by policemen working for the taskforce without committing any offence.  Nwizu said he got a call from his driver that the company truck had been seized by the taskforce on daily tickets in Aba where he was offloading goods along Aba-Owerri road in Aba, even when the company had bought the ticket for that day.

“On 30th  May, 2024, at about 9am, I got a call from one of my company drivers that one of the company trucks was seized by the taskforce on daily tickets along Aba-Owerri road  in Aba. The driver said the taskforce claimed that the truck which was still being offloaded was obstructing the road. But the truck was not parked on the road and didn’t obstruct any movement. I got to the scene and showed them the daily tickets already obtained and paid.

“I insisted that the truck and the driver committed no offence, neither obstruction nor one-way traffic.  The taskforce, acting like touts, removed the battery of the truck and asked for N250, 000 before the battery would be returned and drop the cooked up charges.

“They left the driver and arrested me like a common criminal and called the policemen to handcuff me. They even refused to disclose where they were taking me to. They threatened to jail me for not cooperating with them. One of them asked me to call my director before it will be too late, and he has not been settling them.

“After driving around the city for thirty minutes, they dumped me at the Police Area Command, Aba, from 10am to 6.30pm. I was still handcuffed inside the cell. At about 6.40pm, they arraigned me at the mobile court.

“At the mobile court, the magistrate ordered that they remove the handcuffs, saying that it was a very shameful sight inside the court. The magistrate also ordered that I should pay N250, 000 after I pleaded not guilty to the frivolous charges the taskforce cooked up with the police”, Nwizu said.

Why we are not complaining —Ngwa road traders, Aba

But traders at Ngwa Road Plaza Aba, Abia State, have explained why they are not complaining of heavy taxation and levies by the Government because they “now see evidence of what Government is doing with the money unlike in the past”.

According to the Chairman of the traders, Ikenna Ohanaba, “We are not complaining because we now see what the government is doing with our money. Unlike the previous administration, the government now  evacuates refuse anytime we have clean up exercise in the market. They also clean the gutters and we are happy because the government is working”.

Another trader who owns a popular Supermarket in Umuahia but pleaded for anonymity said that the current administration in the state had not imposed any abnormal levy on them.

“The beautiful thing about the current administration is that they have harmonized all the levies. This is unlike the past government which contracted it to different touts.

“Before, many groups would come and give you anything they like as levy, one would call it infrastructure levy, another group would come and give you outrageous bills as sanitation fee, and others would come demanding different kinds of payments.  But now the government has harmonized everything and once you pay, you are free for the year. I now pay about N12, 000 for the entire year unlike before”.

Anambra people groan under the government’s multiple taxation

In Anambra,business operators including transporters, are crying out over multiple taxes by the state’s revenue agents. Since Professor Chukwuma Soludo assumed office, multiple uniformed people have been on the neck of business establishments, intimidating and harassing them to pay one levy after another.

Revenue agents go to private shops, even in the markets, to demand sundry levies. The state Board of Internal Revenue Service, AIRS, said the measures are to improve the state’s revenue. Residents of the state have continued to lament over the tax regime.

In the state, taxes are imposed on market men and women, bus drivers, tricycle operators, wheelbarrow pushers, shop owners and hawkers, even when the governor had said that poor people should not be taxed.

For instance, the  state government had said that after careful thought, tricycle riders would start paying N15,000 each on a monthly basis, which equals N600 daily for 25 days and that 5 percent of the amount would go to their unions for the month. But when the various groups began to complain, the state government reduced it as follows: Tricycles (Keke) which was N2,500 weekly was reduced to N2000 per week or N8,000 monthly. Taxi operators pay N2,400 weekly or N9,600 monthly; Shuttle buses pay N2,400 weekly or N9,600 monthly, while mini trucks pay N3,000 weekly or N12,000 monthly. Similarly, Urban buses pay N3, 000 weekly or N12, 000 monthly, while inter-state buses pay N4,000 weekly or N16,000 monthly. The payments took effect from September 1, 2023.

But in spite of the stipulated amounts, uninformed revenue agents are forcing them to pay more. For instance, a keke operator, Mr. Christian Nwachi said they are still forced to pay N1000 every day. He said their union leaders have connived with government officials to be demanding an amount far above what government has said they should be paying.  Many  of us can no longer afford the amounts they are asking us to pay”, he said.

A shop owner along the Zik Avenue in Awka, Mrs. Eucharia Okeke narrated how four government revenue agents entered her shop and dropped a receipt of N350, 000 without assessing the goods in her shop, lamenting “we have never had it so bad in this state”.

However some market leaders have come to the defense of the government’s taxes and levies, saying they are the lowest in the region. The chairman of Bridge-head drug dealers association (Ogbo Ogwu market), Onitsha, Chief Ndubuisi Chukwuleta, explained that while Anambra traders are paying N30.000 each as revenue per annum, their Lagos State counterparts are paying as much as N82, 000 without complaining, followed by Enugu State with N55, 000 yearly.

Chukwuleta also explained that in Imo State, traders pay N50, 000 while Abia and Ebonyi States pay N49, 000 and N38, 000 respectively and are not complaining. 

Our taxes are moderate, not high –Enugu Govt

In Enugu State, especially in the metropolis, the complaints are mainly against the taskforce in the ministry of works, called MOT Boys, who openly extort money from motorists. They harass motorists, especially private car owners because the commercial drivers are easily ready to fight them. Most annoying thing is that they often capitalize on faulty traffic lights to bounce on innocent motorists, accusing them of violating traffic rules, and taking them to a corner to extort them.

However, the Chairman of Enugu State Board of Internal Revenue Service, ESIRS, Mr. Ekene Nnamani, said that the taxes paid in the stated unified tax regime is not high compared to what is obtained in other parts of the country.  He also dispelled the claim that the state is collecting “generator tax”.

Nnamani said: “Our tax is not expensive, there is nowhere in the world where people don’t complain about tax, where have you been that people don’t complain about tax? What people want is to let everything be free for them but we won’t allow anybody to go without paying tax.

“In the Western world where our people run to go and stay, it is tax that they used to develop that place and they still go there and pay tax, but here in Nigeria we want everything free. It is people’s contributions that develop their states.

“There is nothing called ‘generator tax’ in Enugu state, it is people that are formulating it. We are looking at what is called gaseous emission levy. But we are still talking about how to implement it. It has not been implemented. What happened was that we engaged a consultant who was talking to us about some laws on gaseous emission in Nigeria, but instead of the guy waiting for us to conclude he went ahead and started sharing demand notices for people to pay. It was supposed to be a survey of people’s opinion instead of demand notice. So there is nothing called gaseous emission levy in Enugu state, not at all. If anybody says he paid, let the person bring evidence and we will refund the person”.

On the issue of touts harassing motorists along the road, demanding money from people carrying produce, Nnamani said: “Those touts along the roads such as Opi-Nsukka road, we have gone to disperse them including those along Idodo axis. If you see them again, you let me know. Once we are within the ambit of the law, we don’t have issues with anybody.”

Some businesses have closed due to high taxation -Nsukka trader

However,  a foodstuffs dealer in Ogige Market, Nsukka, Nnabuike Eze, disagreed, saying that the compulsory N21, 000 tax imposed on shop owners has sent some traders back to their villages.

“Some traders can’t save such an amount of money throughout the year because they pay rent for their shops and have other basic  needs to attend to, and others do not have such an amount of money if you take stock of all his wares.  Some of the traders push their wares around in wheelbarrows because they do not have enough money to stock up their shops. And these traders are not exempted from the N21, 000.  So many businesses have closed down due to high taxation. We used to pay N3, 500 before the inception of this new government”, he explained.

Touts putting more burden on us—Imo traders

Imo traders said they have been under pressure from touts imposing different forms of levies on them.  They mentioned the markets to include Eke Ukwu market located along Douglas road and the Relief Market, situated along the Egbu road in Owerri.

Lamenting, a trader, Vivian Igbo said: “The suffering from these touts are becoming excess. We cannot endure it.The most annoying thing is that the issue is happening like every three hours. They claim they are from the host community of the market; others will say that they are from the government. We are confused. We need help from the above”.

Another trader, Angela Egwu, who sells live Chicken at the Relief Market, narrated her experience saying: “The way things are happening now it appears that the government has abandoned us.  Once you come down from the vehicle, you see these touts following you. Immediately after some minutes the first set will come to collect N500. In the afternoon another set and towards evening you see another set”