The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria has charged the three tiers of government to stop non-state actors from collecting taxes in the country.
CITN’s President/Chairman of Council, Samuel Agbeluyi, gave the charge while speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration of the CITN Abuja Liaison Office in the Federal Capital Territory on Saturday.
He said that was part of the recommendation arrived at during the just concluded weeklong conference of the institute, adding that a communiqué would be sent to the government on that.
“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.
“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.
Asked to specifically state whether the recommendation of CITN was for the government to stop non-state actors from collecting taxes, he replied, “There is no alternative than 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.”
According to Agbeluyi, the non-state actors include area boys, warlords, and those who are not empowered by the constitution and the law to collect taxes but are always seen collecting taxes from people.
He added that the collection of taxes by non-state actors was more rampant 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 urged the three tiers of government to put an end to that, adding that those non-state actors who collect taxes usually harass business operators.
Olaitan Ibrahim