People Who Complain Of Excess Taxation Are Unreasonable _ BIRS
Mr. Victor Beke representative of BIRS Chairman Chief Mrs. Mimi Orubibi Adzape
By Prosper Okoye –
The Benue State Internal Revenue (BIRS) has said that, people who complained of over taxation on business owners in the state, are unreasonable, as taxes are being charged with due consideration to the nature of the business one operates.
Speaking recently at the event of the Grand Patron Investiture, of the Association of Mobile Money Operators in Nigeria, Benue State Chapter, the BIRS Chairman, Chief Mimi Orubibi Adzape said: “When given an amount to pay as a tax payer, you have the right to complain when you can’t pay. You can write to explain to board the reasons why you cannot meet up with the given amount, and some considerations would be made.”
The BIRS Chairman who was represented by Mr. Victor Beke said people who complained of over taxation are not been fair, because when the total charges are summed up, the amount paid in a year is still a negligible sum.
Also speaking, Federal Inland Revenue representative, Rose Bem Ugoh, added that: “most payment collected by the government is not tax, but are levies for services that the citizens enjoy, and are been offered by the state and federal government.”
Federal Inland Revenue representative, Rose Bem Ugoh
However, the Legal Adviser of the Association, Joseph Gbagyo Esq. appealed to the tax collection agencies, that tax holidays should be given to the mobile money operators.
“No matter how we look at it we cannot deny that there is too much taxation on businesses in the state. Some of these businesses began with little capital, and do not generate above 500,000 naira annually as profit.
“As an incentive, government should exempt them from taxation, until they become a conglomerate.”
Delivering a welcome address at the ceremony, Chairman of AMMON Benue state chapter, Orafa Shedrach mentioned that AMMON is one of the leading registered bodies of mobile money operators in the country; committed to provide guidelines so as to hold members to account.
“While protecting and promoting common interests and exploring novel ways to improve the ever changing mobile money ecosystem for greater service delivery.” He said.
Mr. Orafa further revealed that members of the association have encountered challenges in the course of operations, viz: “high cost of start ups, low level financial literacy, insecurity, lack of government support, and multiple taxations.” He solicited that the state government should come to their aid.
Benue state police commissioner, wale Abass, enjoined the association members to take proper records of the customers that they transact business with, as criminals are taking advantage of the porous security nature of the business to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians.
Speaking on behalf of the commissioner, the Police Public Relations Officer, SP Anene Catherine advised the Mobile money Operators to be cautious of the places they site their business outfit.
“We have had so many cases of mobile operators being robbed of their money on gun point; on investigation, we discovered that the environment they operating is lonely and unsafe to carry cash.” The Benue police commissioner said.
Highlight of the event was the Patron investitures on the General Manager, Harvest FM Makurdi, Mrs. Christiana Odeh Okpachu; Managing Director Real sector Development Makurdi, Mr. Nathaniel Igba, and the Managing Director, Ronald Mnyim Nig ltd, Mr. Ronald Mnyim.
