PORT HARCOURT – Mr Jamel Shahimi, the Managing Director, MFW Dredging Nigeria Ltd, on Thursday said that double taxation remained a major challenge in Rivers business environment.
Shahimi made the disclosure in Port Harcourt on at the Rivers Entrepreneurs and Investors Forum (REIF) on the challenges and prospects of the business environment in present day Rivers.
According to him, there is improvement in personal income tax but there is much to be done on double taxation to encourage entrepreneurs to invest in Rivers.
He said the government should as a matter of economic policy, consider tax holidays for a defined period to encourage both local and foreign investors.
Also speaking, Mr Vincent Furo, the Deputy National Treasurer, Nigerian Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), decried calls for investment in the waterways.
Furo said no investor that was profit conscious would consider investing in the waterways because militancy was still a major challenge in the creeks.
“Considering tourism as a new front to invest in, the waterway is a laudable idea but when you do your feasibility study, you will know that it is a no go area because of militancy,” he said. [eap_ad_2] He urged the government to come up with a policy that would train, empower and monitor youths in entrepreneurship to be self employed.
In his contribution, Mr Clement Akanibo, a tax Consultant, said the tax issue was a challenge to Rivers entrepreneurs, adding that it had discouraged new investors to participate in the business environment.
Akanibo disclosed that failure of the entrepreneurs to know the laws on taxation had also made them prone to manipulations by corrupt tax agents.
According to him, entrepreneurs should have the tax list of collections model to be properly educated on what, when and how to pay tax.
“Entrepreneurs’ should keep track of business records as this will aid them and the tax agents in resolving deductions to be paid as tax.
“The state government needs to help in harmonising tax collections with the local government; this will eliminate the problems associated with tax collections in the local government,” he said.
Earlier, Mrs Onene Oshoko, the Chairman of Rivers State Internal Revenue Service (RIRS), said a lot of improvement had been made in tax collection by the agency.
Oshoko said that the agency was implementing the personal income tax more as it was their responsibility to ensure that every employed person paid tax.
“We do not have a target to increase income tax of the individuals but our target is to ensure that those who have not been paying their income tax are made to pay voluntarily,” she said. (NAN)[eap_ad_3]