By Gabriel Enogholase

BENIN—CHAIRMAN of Edo State Internal Revenue Service, Chief Useni Elamah, has disclosed that only 141,000 of the over four million people in the state pay their taxes, adding that over 90 percent of the dues, levies and taxes collected from the citizens were illegal.

Useni spoke at the launch of a video album titled, I will Expose Bad Market Leaders, by Traders’ Welfare Union of Nigeria  in Benin.

Represented by Mr. Emmanuel Usoh, an Executive Director and member of the State Internal Revenue Service, he said that the state government had set up a committee involving the 18 local government chairmen to clear all illegal and dubious collections of rates, levies and taxes as well as the barricades on highways where innocent Nigerians are forced to part with their money through intimidation thus giving the state a bad name.

He said that the government has made up its mind to ensure that no Nigerian residing and doing business in the state was illegally deprived of his money without due receipt, adding that the greatest challenge facing traders in the state today was undue harassment by illegal tax collectors.