Enugu -The Enugu State Tax Justice Platform has said that more than 50 per cent of tax payers in the state lacked confidence in the way the government allocated tax resources.
A member of the group made up of civil society organisations, Mr Brian Onwurah, said on Tuesday that the figure emanated from a survey conducted in the three senatorial zones.
Onwurah, who presented the report during a public dialogue with stakeholders in tax matters, said it unearthed an alarming knowledge gap and lack of confidence in the state tax regime.
“There is a lot of work to be done to build the confidence of tax payers in the state.
“A majority of the residents does not know the agencies mandated by the government to collect taxes and believe that the revenue so generated is not well allocated,” he said.
Onwurah said that the general belief was that there was ‘tax injustice’ in the state which needed to be harmonised.
The Chairman of the group, Mrs Grace Nwobodo, said that the current tax regime in the state lacked transparency and was skewed against the poor.
She said that though residents had the duty to render assistance to the government to deliver services that will make lives better, that ought to be transparent.
“What we have here is an inequitable system that does not take into consideration how much I earn opposed to how much I should pay
“It is a system that doesn’t bother whether the very rich pay their taxes whereas the poor man is being extorted,’’ she said.
Nwobodo urged the government to enthrone a transparent tax regime and ensure that the taxes collected go into government coffers.
The traditional ruler of Udi Kingdom and participant at the event, Dr Chris Ogakwu, said that economic activities in the state had been on the downward slide due to lack of clear cut taxation policy.
Ogakwu lamented that some companies in the state had relocated to other states due to multiple taxation.
“About five companies that I personally attracted to Enugu from Abuja have all gone back because of wrong taxation.
“I was expecting to see the government of Enugu State and their tax masters here to join hands with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to improve our tax policies,” he said.
Ogakwu urged the FIRS and other revenue collecting agencies to develop a more efficient way of rendering their services to get the best from tax payers.
In his presentation, the Tax Controller, Medium Tax Office of the FRIS, Enugu, Mr Ben Obioha, said that Nigeria could not survive as a nation if it did not fall back on tax.
Obioha said that the FIRS was doing its best to ensure that best practices were deployed in generating revenue for the government through tax. (NAN)
