•Francis Nwifuru
Ebonyi State governor, Chief Francis Nwifuru, yesterday, warned revenue officers in the state against collecting taxes from petty traders and indigent ones in the state.
He said it was inhuman to tax vegetable sellers and other petty traders in the state, reports Daily Sun.
The governor stated this during the swearing-in of members of the Revenue Appeal Commission.
He disclosed that he would soon put in place enabling laws to checkmate clandestine activities of scrap dealers in the state.
The governor, while regretting that residents of the state had incurred huge economic losses owing to criminal activities of some of the scrap dealers, maintained that the state could not fold its arms and watch the criminals cash out on the hard earnings of citizens.
“There is no uncompleted building in this city that they have not stolen the wires, and everything. They are now de-roofing houses because they are looking for aluminium and they are not even paying taxes.”
The governor also cautioned the appointees against indiscriminate taxation of the less privileged persons selling their farm produce in local markets and charged them to go for big time property owners and business moguls.
“I have told the Revenue Service, I don’t want you to go to the village markets and be taxing vegetable sellers, I have said it times without number.
“It is a big challenge to us because it is not showing the electorate that they have a government.
“I don’t see reasons we should be taxing people, who are selling what they got from their farms, leaving those who have benefited from the government and have investments that ought to be paying revenue to the state.”
He called on the chairman and members of the Revenue Service and Appeal Commission to go about their duties with human face to improve the internally generated revenue of the state and not step on the toes of the people.
“I don’t want shouting, I don’t want closing people’s shops, you have to look at the people’s shops and tax them based on what they have, everything is all about negotiations.” The Governor also warned people against indiscriminate siting of markets in areas not approved for such activities by the government, saying such ventures are bound to give way for the government’s development plans.
“There is no city that everywhere can be market, if it is not a plaza or shopping mall, you cannot open shops along the road.”
