FCTA to eliminate multiple taxes
NAN-H-88
Taxes
By Kabir Muhammad Abuja, Feb. 15, 2017 (NAN) The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, has said that the administration has put machinery in motion to harmonise taxes in the territory to reduce cases of multiple taxation.
Bello stated this while receiving members of the Hotel Owners Forum, FCT Chapter, who visited him on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to him, one of the areas that have been of great concern to the FCT Administration is multiplicity of taxes.
He said that the soon to be operational FCT Inland Revenue Services (FCT-IRS) in concert with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) will work out modalities to harmonise all taxes.
“One area that has been of great challenge to us is the multiplicity of taxes that FCT residents pay.
“It is something that is of great concern and jointly with the FIRS with the FCT IRS which will soon be operational, will work on what is already being done nationally so that we can harmonise all these taxes.
“The ultimate goal is for businesses and organisations to just make one payment to a particular agency and that agency divides the payments to all the others.
“That way, you don’t have to communicate with five or six different people coming to you and you don’t know who is genuine and who is not genuine.
“I can assure you we are on the path towards being able to surmount that,” he said.
Bello noted that in no distant future, the administration would sort out all these problems of multiple taxes and give the residents a clear programme and road map as to what the collections are supposed to be.
He, however, warned that on no condition must any kind of tax be paid into private accounts because taxes are meant for the government.
“With regard to taxation, I want to clearly tell you now that any person that comes to you and says pay tax into a private account, don’t pay.
“Taxation is for government. Even if for any reason, taxes are being collected through consultants and so on, first and foremost, the taxes go to government coffers, and then government pays the consultants.
“If you have a problem, report to me directly through your association,” the minister said.
On tenement rate and area of the jurisdictions of the Area Councils, particularly Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), he said it is something that is in the court and declined further comments.
“But what we are trying to do will take care of all these and everybody will be carried along.
“It is a pity that of recent, the economic situation has affected almost every sector of the nation but that it is a reality that nations go through and I think it’s not peculiar to Nigeria,” he said.
He, however, assured that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is very conscious of the need to encourage the private sector because government alone cannot cater for the employment needs of all Nigerians.
Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the forum, Eze Maxwell Kanu, said that the forum has about 250 hotels in its membership.
He called on the minister to help resolve problems of multiple taxes in the FCT.
Kanu appealed for assistance in ironing out problems of Land Use Contravention where their members are usually charged very high on yearly basis.
He also called for the review of the Abuja Master Plan especially as it concerns hotels and hospitality industry to provide more plots of land for such facilities. (NAN)
KM/MST
Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola