Maduako Igbokwe I Friday, August 12, 2023
ONITSHA, Anambra – Members of Joint Transporters Forum of Anambra State (JTFA) have urged the state governor Prof Charles Soludo to lessen their tax burden.
JTFA made up of all transport unions in the state said the heavy tax imposed on them by the governor is turning them into slaves as they work every day with nothing to take care of their families.
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They said that they are only working to meet up with the government tax needs and abandoning others responsibilities.
The chairman of the JTFA Prince Moses Ohanebo who addressed journalists in Onitsha Anambra state on Thursday said the government tax regime is forcing many of them to sell their buses at give away prices.
According to him,if any person wants to buy their motors,he will first check if the bus is owing the state government. He said that many drivers in the state are frustrated and are leaving the state because they cannot continue with the heavy taxation.
“Our problems are multifaceted,we pay the money the government asked us to pay, it will not be captured in the government accounts. We will show them receipt but they will still arrest us and force us to pay N25,000 to N35, 000 penalty even when the fault is not ours.
“We even pay when our motors are in the mechanics, we pay when we are sick and not at work. This is not supposed to be so.
“Some body whose vehicle is in the mechanics ought not to pay within the period in mechanic. We want the governor to lessen our burden by allowing us to pay only when we work. The governor promised us that touts would be banned but today we have more louts in the state than before” he stated.
He pleaded with the governor to have meeting with them to streamline how to collect the taxes from members without inflicting pains on them.
Speaking at the briefing,the coordinator of tricycle riders in Anambra state Mr Innocent Obagha said that government cannot effectively collect the taxes from transporters without involving the union members.
“The collection of taxes in the state cannot be done by the government officials. We have the structure to effectively collect the taxes for government. Those whom the government is using for the collections of the revenue are the same people who were opposed to government getting appropriate revenue. They are members of banned Agboros in the state” he said .
According to him,the enforcement team of the government is mistreating and treating them as slaves and second hand citizens. He said the enforcement team has killed three of their members in just two weeks.
He called on the governor to grant them audience and discuss on how the revenue would be collected, noting that the taskforce in the state is creating more problems than solving any. According to him,despite the banning of touts,they are still harassing and intimidating their members.
“We are not happy with the operations of the revenue team who have been harassing our members locking them up in Black Maria truck and detaining them at the revenue team cells and you have to pay up N20,000.00 to secure bail”
“So far three of our drivers have died due to the operation of the tax force on revenue . You will recall that at Okoh Orumba North local government area they chased one of our drivers conveying passengers, mainly students and the bus somersaulted leading to the death of the driver while the passengers sustained various degrees of injuries”
“One just sold his land to put his vehicle in order and on that first day he came out to work,his vehicle was seized because he has not paid his tax but for about three months he has not been on the road and due to that frustration he gave up the ghost ”
“The other one ran into an accident when he was being chased by the revenue team who went after him with guns and matches ”
“The monthly payment is difficult for our members and we appeal to the state government to allow us to pay daily instead of monthly and the worst of it all is that even if you have not been on the road for a week or a month you are expected to pay that money with an unofficial penalty of N10,000.00 or N20,000.00 as the case may be”he said .
According to him, initially Soludo said that transporters will only pay taxes but today the government has introduced emblems and many others.
He stated that in places like Onitsha touts at the motor parks collect over ten different types of levies from them and wondered why everybody focused on drivers.
He also appealed to the governor to allow them collect the revenue and pay into the government coffers instead of using touts .
