By Chidi Nkwopara

OWERRI—Members of Imo State House of Assembly are fine-tuning arrangements to enact stiffer penalties for tax defaulters, including corporate bodies that fail to pay their taxes as at when due.

Similarly, if a private member Bill is eventually passed into law, Imo people would henceforth pay a tax that would be tagged “General Sales Tax” on specified commodities and services.

The member representing Nkwerre State Constituency in the House of Assembly, Mr. Chika Madumere, who initiated the Bill, reasoned that it would among other things, enforce the payment of taxes by taxable adults and corporate bodies.

He was also of the view that major and minor business outlets like hotels, where consumable commodities are dispensed at exorbitant rates, ought to attract revenue to government.

The lawmaker reasoned that the development came on the heels of the glaring inability of the state government to pay workers salaries, as well as the urgent need for government to look elsewhere for the funding of its projects and programmes.

Continuing, Madumere also explained that the Bill, if passed into law, would assist to a large extent, in reviving the state’s ailing economy, especially in the face of the national economic meltdown.