Experts urge government to leverage on ICT for growth
NAN-H-36
Growth
By Constance Athekame/Abolade Ogundimu
Abuja, Sept. 8, 2016 (NAN) ICT experts have called on the Federal Government to leverage on information technology to promote entrepreneurship instead of introducing the Communication Service Tax (CST) Bill.
The experts spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews in Abuja on Friday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Federal Government is proposing the introduction of CST Bill, which seeks to impose a nine per cent levy on telecommunication subscribers for various communication services.
The new Bill seeks to impose charges on service fees payable by users of electronic communication services at nine per cent such as voice calls, Small Messages (SMS), Multimedia Multiple Messages (MMS), data usage, among others.
It will mandate service providers to file monthly tax returns with the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) with strict penalties for non-compliance.
Justifying the Bill which is before the National Assembly, the Minister of Communication, Mr Adebayo Shittu said that the move was expected to generate at least N20 billion monthly as revenue for the Federal Government.
Mr Mark Woji, the Project Partner, Mind the-Gap, North-Central, an NGO said Nigerians do not need the tax instead government should focus on building entrepreneurship to accelerate economic growth.
“Personally I think we don’t need the tax because Nigerians are already suffering, what it should focus on is building entrepreneurship in the ICT sector rather than taxing people.
“People do not really have this money then the little that they have you want to collect from them.
“Imposing taxes like this, you are putting people against the government and nothing good will come out of it, so I want to advise that government should encourage entrepreneurship.
“We should forget about it, I have heard the manifesto of some of the things the ministry of agriculture and other ministries want to do and I like it,‘’ he said.
Woji said that he was strongly against task force arresting people on the streets while hawking when jobs had not been provided for them.
“You have not provided jobs for these people and you driving them away how do they provide for their families.
“If they are rowdy there is a way you encourage them by putting them in a place where they can sell their market that is how your GDP grows,’’ he said.
Another ICT expert, Mr Hilary Damisa said that the communication service tax if passed into law would stifle the growth of the industry.
Damisa said that the country at the moment lacked adequate infrastructural provision required to immediately help the nation achieve its desired 30per cent internet broadband penetration.
“Thus with already existing multiplication of taxes any introduction of new tax system may hamper more investment.
“As it is right now power remains a major challenge, more so, the charges on right of ways had not been harmonised, so why another tax regime.
“Users already are charged five per-cent every subscription and another on their hardware equipment therefore it’s difficult to justify another nine per-cent. (NAN)
COA/GY
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Edited by Grace Yusssuf