Tag Archives: LEVIES

Touts have hijacked collection of taxes, levies in Abuja – Reps

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Nigerian lawmakers on Thursday raised alarm over indiscriminate collection of taxes and levies by unscrupulous individuals across the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, warning undiscerning residents not to fall prey to swindlers.

 

These dubious elements, the lawmakers said, have taken over the role of FCT Internal Revenue Service and now parade themselves as genuine staff of the tax collection office.

 

The awareness was contained in a motion of urgent national concern raised by Emmanuel Oker-Jev at the resumed plenary Thursday.

 

Mr. Oker-Jev, from Benue State, said fraudsters have been collecting revenues from Abuja residents for several months.

 

The lawmaker said the crooks have become so brazen in their rackets that they now write tax and levies invoices to residents. In some cases, those who fail to pay bills are being thrown out of their property by the touts.

 

Mr. Oker-Jev said the perpetrators of the brazen illegality are exploiting a 2015 approved list for tax collection around the nation’s capital to carry out their trade.

 

“The act pretends an affront on the FCT Inland Revenue Service Act and Tax Laws of the Federation,” Mr. Oker-Jev said in his prepared motion.

 

Other lawmakers who contributed to the motion blamed the FCT revenue office for failing to set up additional departments recommended by the House for collection of taxes and levies, giving the touts an opening to impersonate revenue officers.

 

Speaker Yakubu Dogara ruled that the motion was adopted and urged the House’s FCT Committee to find out why the city’s revenue office did not implement previous resolutions by the House on the matter.

 

The committee is expected to submit its report within four weeks.

 

In the interim, the House passed a resolution for residents around the FCT to disregard taxes and levies from the questionable individuals.

Jamilu Mabai?: Gov. Masari Annual Levy; The Right Policy Or The Good Policy

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The news broke out a week ago, after the weekly council meeting when Hon Commissioner Ministry of water resources disclosed to news men the decision by the government of RT. Hon Aminu Bello Masari to introduce the annual tax levy for private/commercial motorcycles and tricycle users as a means revenue generating scheme.

 

The charges include N6, 200 for private motorcycles, N6, 650 for users of commercial motorcycles and 7, 500 for users of tricycles. Mathematically, users are expected to pay an overall sum of N19.00 (Naira Goma sha Tara) daily which is more than fair enough going by the economic stability of these users despite income differences.

 

Government policies differs, there are the right policy and the good policy. The right policy might not necessarily be in line with what the people want, secondly, it takes time before its begins to yield back dividends to the society, implementing right policy is the best that could ever happen to a society. Example when El-Rufai began to restore the Abuja master plan, even when majority of the people were against it, but years later people began to appreciate El-Rufai for implementing the right policies against all odds.

 

Although, users of these motorcycles & tricycles might perceived the new imposed levy on them by the government of Masari as unFAIR, it is with all sincerity, one of the only ways we can begin to generate revenue internally which ought to have been in existing right before now. At the long run, these same users whom pay their annual levy will benefit in many ways which include provision of drugs in hospitals, construction and maintenance of roads for easy commuting, economic empowerment to aid self reliance and many more.

 

Whereas, good policies provide short term benefits that provide instant gratification for a short period of time. The outcome result is discouraging, it lacks vision but mission only. With the dwindling economy, good policies are in NO way good for us, at this moment of existence.

 

For governor Masari to  come up with a vision like this, we hope & pray it gets the necessary backing, sincere minds to steer the wheel, great eyes to oversee where loopholes lies and good hands to patch it up.

 

Lastly, our attitude is our greatest impediment to attaining our full potential as a society, the day we begin to change our mindset positively towards making our society a better place, is the day when we shall begin to succeed as a society.

 

Written by

Jamilu Mabai

Online Publisher Cliqqmagazine.blogspot.com

Columnist at Katsinareporters.wordpress.com

Follow me on Twitter:@jaymb000

Email: jamilisma2000@gmail.com

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

Mobile Phone, Computer Levy To Commence Soon – NCC

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The implementation of two per cent levy on mobile phones, computers, photocopiers, scanners and similar products will commence soon, the Director-General, National Copyright Commission, Mr. Afam Ezekude, has said.

Ezekude said this at a press briefing to mark the 2015 World Book and Copyright Day in Abuja on Thursday.

He said the order for the levy had been put into a gazette, adding that the only thing that remained was a nod for its implementation from the Minister of Finance.

The levy order is applicable to all imported or locally produced materials used or capable of being used to infringe copyright in a work both imported and manufactured in the country, and it is designed to compensate the right owners for the envisaged infringement.

The NCC boss said, “The copyright levy on particular materials order has not been abandoned. It places a levy on any material either manufactured locally or coming into the country from outside.

“It imposes a minimum levy on those materials as a way of compensating copyright owners because a lot of these materials such as photocopiers, phones and DVDs that can be used for infringing people’s copyright. We are imposing a levy on them.

“As we speak, the order is currently awaiting implementation. We are waiting for the nod from the Minister of Finance to actually start implementation, but we are almost there. It is important that the order is implemented so that our right owners will get what is actually theirs.”

Ezekude added, “It is not a tax; it is a levy. Before the levy order was put into a gazette, we actually did relevant consultation with industry people that will be affected by the levy order – the Importers Association of Nigeria and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. The consultation was very successful. We had opportunity to explain what we are trying to do and they were happy to key into it and that is why we got to the point of putting it into a gazette and to the point of implementation.

“We could not have done this if the importers and the manufacturers had kicked against it because it would impact on them. They understand how important it is for the right owners to be compensated. It is a levy. It is completely different from a tax.”

Credit – Punch newspaper