LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)-The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) has urged the federal, state, and local governments to stop tax collection by non-state actors across the country.
This appeal was made by CITN President and Chairman of Council, Samuel Agbeluyi, at the inauguration of the CITN Abuja Liaison Office on Saturday.
Agbeluyi highlighted that this recommendation was a key outcome of the institute’s recent conference, He announced that a communiqué detailing their position would be sent to various government bodies, including the Federal Ministry of Finance and the National Security Adviser.
“We discussed the collection of taxes by non-state actors during our conference. So, we are not just going to present our communiqué to only the Federal Ministry of Finance. We are also sending it to the National Security Adviser.
“This is because the roles of the non-state actors have some security aspects that the finance ministry and FIRS cannot handle. So, we are going to send our communiqué to various stakeholders for implementation.
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“It is not correct to say that the government doesn’t listen. The government at various levels, either the national or sub-national level, listens to advice. We have experienced it in the past and we are sure that this time they are going to listen,” Agbeluyi stated.
When asked if CITN’s recommendation was for the government to stop non-state actors from collecting taxes, Agbeluyi replied, “There is no alternative but to stop them.”
“The government must stop them, which is why I mentioned the role of the National Security Adviser. It is the way to go. You can’t allow non-state actors to play the vital role of collecting taxes. It is not sustainable, not a civilized way of doing things and there is no accountability in it.”
The CITN president stressed that “when you see people saying that Nigeria’s tax to GDP is low, that is one of the elements causing it. Because what the non-state actors are collecting is not remitted to the common purse of the country. And this is distorting our data. So it must be stopped.”
Agbeluyi identified non-state actors as area boys, warlords, and others who lack constitutional and legal authority to collect taxes but still engage in the practice of collecting taxes from people.
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He noted that this issue is especially common at the local government level.
“Some of the local government leaders hire these people because they supported them during their political campaign. That needs to stop, if we want to operate in a civilised environment,” he noted.
He called on the government at all levels to take decisive action against non-state actors who harass business operators while collecting taxes.