The Managing Director of NISPO Porcelain Company Limited, Mr. Afam Ukatu, has advised the fiscal authorities to suspend the proposed Value Added Tax (VAT) hike and to frontally tackle the problem of multiple taxation in order to prevent many manufacturing companies’ collapse.
Ukatu, who commented on the incidence of the multiplicity of taxes in the country at the inauguration ceremony of Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN) held in Lagos, called on the tiers government to engage the Organised Private Sector (OPS) in order to mitigate the impact of multiple taxation on real sector entities
The industrialist said: “If the government does not look into the issue of multiple taxation and harmonises it as quickly as possible, many more manufacturers would shut down.
“The situation has deteriorated to the extent that tax authorities shut down factories because of tax defaulters. But what I do ask them is that if you shut a factory because they are not paying tax, and all their workers are on the street, where are they going to get money to pay the tax? Again, I will advise that the government desist from the proposed increase of VAT”, he added.
According to him, there is increasing need for the government to address the problem of multiple taxation.
Ukatu argued that taxes are being paid on turnover, querying that “but what of the situation where a manufacturer is losing money?
He explained further that in the Nigerian situation “it is obvious that a manufacturer produces and still loses money and still expected to pay taxes”, suggesting that there should be a system whereby manufacturers evaluated by the tax authorities based on Chinese assessment model
He lamented: “It is a sad story that the country has a very huge gap directly hampers business. It is obvious that the cost of local transport from one end to the same Lagos has gone up more than what you paid as freight from China to Nigeria.”
Noting further that despite some modest achievements recorded by the government through the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ policy, the NISPO boss pointed out that Nigeria still remained one of the difficult countries in the world to do business.
He argued however that the nation can grow its business if the business environment remained more conducive and all infrastructures are in place.
