Petty traders and artisans in Lagos State woke up this morning Thursday, August 29, 2024 to find tax officers forcefully locking up their business premises over non payment of income tax.
Our correspondents who monitored the exercise in Ojodu Berger and some other parts of Lagos, witnessed massive wailings by this low class of business owners.
According to some of the victims who spoke to The Frontier, the present economic woes inflicted on them by the All Progressive Party (APC)-controlled government did not call for such stern action against them.
On one premises with two separate buildings (one in front and another building behind), the tax officials had sealed the premises with a long rope and placed printed documents from the Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) of the Lagos State Government. When the tenant living in the building behind came to open the entrance gate perhaps to buy some items along the street, he struggled to open the gate, not knowing that the entire premises has been sealed by the government tax collectors.
It was the shouting for help by the tenant, Mr Sam (not real name) which attracted the attention of the tax collectors who removed the sealing materials and got the gate opened.
Mr Sam told our correspondent, “It is really appalling that Lagos State Government officials can behave this way. How can they lock up a premises just because they find a shop in front of the house, without finding out if there’re other tenants living there?
“Suppose it was an emergency situation and I needed to escape through the gate, what would have happened to me?”
In an on-the-spot interview with the leader of the tax collectors team on Obafalabi Street in Ojodu area of Lagos, Mr Kunle Adelaja, he said his team was going about collecting Personal Income Tax from traders and artisans who own shops on the streets.
Asked if the state government had given their targets enough notice, Adelaja said, “We gave them a formal three-month notice in January this year. After that, our officials had been coming around to remind them but they didn’t comply, that’s why we decided to effect the tax order this morning.”
Adelaja said each trader and artisan was expected to pay a presumptive personal income tax of N10,100 for the year 2024.
But the traders and artisans who spoke to The Frontier denied being given any long notice by the state government.
A hairdressing salon owner on one of the streets, Madam Yakubu said, “They never gave us any long notice. It was only two weeks ago that one of the tax officials came to my shop to inform me of the tax. Please tell me, I hardly have customers coming to fix their hair these days. Some days I will take Okada to the shop and return home without making a dime.
“Meanwhile, schools in the state will resume next week and I am still looking for school fees for my children. Where does government expect me to get N10,100 tax to pay when we can hardly feed in this harsh economy”.
The proprietress of a fashion school on another street who gave her name as Mrs Bunmi, narrated to The Frontier that some people who claimed to be officials from the Lagos Internal Revenue Service came to her shop two weeks ago, asking her to pay N10,100 as tax for the current year.
“Since they identified themselves as state government officials from LIRS, I had no problem with that. I asked them to serve me an officially written notice to that effect, they said they had earlier done so. But I told them I never received such a letter from their office.
“I then asked them to give me the official bank account details of LIRS which I would remit the money to, they told me they would give me another account number to pay the money into, that if I should pay into the government account, my money would not be traced by them. That’s when I had my doubts. And see how the have come to forcefully seal my business premises this morning.”
Tunde, a domestic gas retailer whose shop is also on the street, re-echoed the economic hardship in the country which has grossly reduced the living standards of citizens, when he told The Frontier, “This is the least of what the impoverished citizens of this country expect from the government. Instead of providing jobs and carrying out measures to reduce poverty in the land, Lagos State Government is sending out its officials to forcefully collect N10,100 as tax from the hungry masses. How does that sound?
“And when people go out there to cry out that they are hungry and that government should come to their rescue, the same government will despatch their security agencies to kill the hungry masses and clamp others into jail?
“Governor Sanwo-Olu should immediately call his tax collectors to order, he should rather come to our assistance.”
