By Egufe Yafugborhi

HOUSING investor, My-ACE China, has appealed to the Rivers State government to protect businesses in the state against violent and fraudulent tax collectors.

China, while calling for voluntary compliance among tax payers, noted that despite the state’s improved efforts towards tax harmonisation, Rivers was still faced by multiple, duplicated taxes regime.

The situation, he noted, encourages fraudulent and violent tax agents to join the fray, subjecting taxpayers to constant harassment and extortions in absence of a one-stop tax center.

Addressing challenges in Rivers tax management at a media roundtable organized by the Rivers Internal Revenue Service (RIRS) in partnership with Business Day in Port Harcourt, China, Chief Executive Officer, Mayor of Housing Ltd suggested d factors to sanitize the tax system in the state.

“So, River is not only ready for business, but also more than ever committed to no longer being a haven for fraudulent tax collectors. And to build that investor confidence, there must be genuine harmonization of taxes. 

“No private practitioner wants to pay tax and come back and discover he paid tax to the wrong collector because there is no harmonized system of tax collection. That is why the one-stop-shop by the River State Investment Promotion Agency (RSIPA) is something RIRS should embrace.

“RIRS should synergise and work closely with the RSIPA recipe to ensure all businesses, public and private, key into it as one place to adequately get informed on the taxes one needs to pay.”

He also called for sanitization in land acquisition in the state with digital models now being applied like Abuja and some states to make land acquisition, documentation and development seamless. 

“Over our flagship housing project, the Alesa Highland Smart City in Eleme, I have championed creation of the Alesa Land Development Authority that sanitizes all land transactions in Alesa.

“This communal authority makes sure there’s no room for land grabbers, no room for land fraud. They ensure that every land transaction goes through that body for sanitization.”

The Executive Chairman, RIRS, Sir Israel Egbunefu, noted that Service’s relentless commitment to sanity in tax collection also informed the partnership with the BusinessDay to boost tax education and engagement series with the private sector in the state. 

The RIRS boss highlighted steady measures being put in place to end tax touting, saying the system is being digitized for enhanced monitoring and sanitization.

The General Manager (Business Development & Marketing), BusinessDay, Dr Patrick Ijegbai, said the medium saw the need to rally the private sector and tax regulators to tackle tax challenges at boosting revenue for the state and compliance for companies especially by exploring the new tax laws. 

Prof John Ohaka of the Rivers State University enlightened stakeholders on how digitalization of tax processes make businesses pay less while government makes more revenue.