Health
PROPRIETORS of Abuja private hospitals have called for the urgent intervention of the Ministers of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Finance over alleged multiple taxes and levies slammed on them by Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).
Dr Wisdom Ihejieto, a member of the Abuja Guild of Medical Directors, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday.
The taxes and levies paid by the private hospital owners, he said, were taking a toll on the overall healthcare delivery, especially on private practitioners.
Ihejieto, an Abuja-based family physician, said a situation where you have 14 subsidiaries of AMAC coming to ask for different levies and taxes was worrisome.
He said that some of these taxes and levies were duplicated; adding that there is no way the private medical practitioner can survive because they pay other bills.
According to him, they pay other bills such as water, electricity, house, environmental and security bills, among others.
”Now if you have all that, then it becomes difficult for the patient to come to the private hospitals and get healthcare delivery at much reduced cost.
“In fact the multiple taxes increases the operational cost of private hospitals and by extension increases the bill of the patients,’’ he said.
According to him, the government has a lot of role to play here; the government is like a father to all.
“What they can do now is to give a waver that the multiplicity of taxes should not be.’’
He said that the health establishment render social service, stressing that “the government can say don’t over tax these people anymore.
“And if government do this, the private health practitioners will reduce the cost of health delivery on patients”.
He said “the government could instruct that the hospitals should not be disturbed”.
Ihejieto said that if religious institutions were not paying multiple taxes, the government could also help the health establishments so that in the long run, the patient could also enjoy some subsidy. (NAN)
– Feb. 8, 2018 @ 18:05 GMT |
Tags: Abuja private hospitals owners decry multiple taxes levies
