Corruption In Tax Administration: Nigerians Task Govt To Leverage Technology

To curb corruption and arbitrariness in tax administration in the country, governments at all levels have been tasked to leverage technology and desist from using touts in collecting revenue.

Participants during an anti-corruption radio program ‘PUBLIC CONSCIENCE’ anchored and produced by the Progressive Impact Organization for Community Development, PRIMORG, Wednesday in Abuja made the calls following investigative reports published by the International Center for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) on how millions of naira generated from cattle taxes in Kano State end up in private pockets.

It was also reported that residents of Ardo Kola and Gassol Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Taraba State continue groaning under ‘excess taxation and corruption.

Speaking during the radio programme, financial analyst Agaba Wilson Agaba cautioned that tax administration in Nigeria will remain ineffective and laden with corruption if authorities continue using touts popularly called ‘agberos’ to collect revenues rather than deploy technology.

Agaba noted that arbitrary taxes at the local government level have become a norm over the years, lamenting that the situation is killing the economy of several communities.

He specifically knocked state governments for allowing corruption in tax administration to fester, saying that citizens usually bear the brunt of non-state actors collecting arbitrary taxes as political patronage.

“Touts or ‘agberos’ collecting tax should be abolished. Let us legislate so that these kinds of activities are removed. We shouldn’t have non-state actors collecting taxes on behalf of the government in days when we have technology that can do that.

“People in the LGAs should have their IT departments to monitor these kinds of software, and these revenues can be collected. There should be accredited agent bankers within the markets, just like POS operators, to collect the taxes and issue receipts, and then you can do your checks and balances and give them a small commission.

“What you see in many states is that since the governors loot the local government funds, they leave the people at the grassroots to find other means to fund themselves – our democracy is highly corrupted.

“The reasons these things happen are political, and once you leave these kinds of things to non-state actors, they are bound to do whatever they deem fit,’ he warned.

On his part, a member of the Ardo Kola LGA, Taraba State, Pius Naphtali, corroborated ICIR’s investigative report and lamented that residents and business owners in the community are facing excessive taxation, alleging that 50 percent of the taxes are diverted.

Naphtali said that not all tax payments are given receipt for, adding that the ripping off of residents and business owners through arbitrary taxes was happening across the state.

Asked to justify the allegation that the local government tax collectors are diverting revenues into their pockets, Naphtali said, “It has often been observed that people that pay tax are given receipts, but most of the times, the receipts are fake. A situation where people who pay more than N5,000 are given receipts and people who pay less are not given receipts; instead, their names are written in a tax book.

Earlier, Investigative Journalist Shamsiyya Hamza Sulaiman called on the Kano state government to take a closer look at the investigation and stop arbitrary taxes slammed on cattle businesses in the state.

Sulaiman explained how millions of naira generated from cattle tax are diverted and do not get to the government coffers, saying that cattle markets at Wudil, Dambatta, and Bichi generate at least N120,000,000 each, but the state government gets nothing from them.

“The traders said that they don’t see the use for the taxes, they are not comfortable, and that they are forced to pay. Sometimes, they don’t get to make sales, yet they pay taxes on each cattle. Still, the market union said they use the tax to pay for the refuse bin, the cleaning and tidying of the market square, security, road repairs, electricity bills and water supply,” Sulaiman stated.