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SOME business owners in Bwari Area Council of the FCT have expressed displeasure against the operations of revenue collection officials.
They expressed the displeasure through separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
Mr Shadrach Ayani, a bakery owner in Bwari, said his challenge was that several revenue officers from the area council kept visiting his facility to ask for annual levies, periodically.
According to him, this levy is supposed to be paid once annually, but sometimes, at different intervals, we keep receiving different officials coming to ask for levies we already paid.
“I engaged them most times while trying to prove to them that the levy is paid annually but they always find an excuse with a different document saying this is different from the one I paid,’’ he said.
“Each time the officials visited my facility; they would always show identity cards and claimed to be the authentic ones to collect revenue,”he said.
Similarly, Mrs Rita Musa, a shop owner, said that the officials visit her shop randomly, asking for levies she had already paid.
Musa said that different group would come each time with different documents.
“The operatives will always have a name for you to pay something, they can say that the one you paid for before is operational permit or shop license.
“They will attach a levy that is less or higher than what you paid before and asked that you negotiate with them.
“Another day, another batch will come and ask for another levy for hygiene practice or present anything on the council letterhead and may even threaten to take you to court if you do not comply,’’ she said.
Musa said that her concern was that they hardly give prior notice for all the payments and sometimes, what they charge would be higher.
“Times are hard for everybody and these little businesses are what we use to fend for our family needs.
“Government cannot provide jobs for everybody, so they should not frustrate our efforts to make means for our survival,” she said.
Meanwhile, another business man, Mr Abdurraman Lukeman, a tailor in kubwa, said the revenue collection official visited him recently after eight years.
Lukeman, however, said that the officials gave him a bill of N30, 000 and told him to negotiate payment with them.
He added that they presented their identity cards after he asked them for it and also told him that the bill comprised of permit and levy for operations.
The tailor noted that the officials wrote down the negotiated sum in a receipt and asked him to pay into an individual account instead of an official bank account.
Lukeman, who said he was concerned that the officials might return at any time to demand for another sum, urged the council administration to look into the procedures of their operatives.
This, he explained, was to ensure that the administration was able to secure its revenue as well as protect business owners from fraudulent charges.
NAN reports that the chairman of Bwari council, Mr John Gabaya, during the 2024 budget proposal to the council legislature in January, said the council’s revenue would now be collected electronically.
This, he explained was to address leakages in revenue generation.
According to him, from January 2024, relevant authorities of the council will go round with Point Of Sale machines and other gadgets for clients to pay their levies and taxes via remita or visit the banks.
He said this was to ensure full delivery of the service as the only payment platform, noting that receipts from the machines would only read the council’s signature and not an individual or company names.
“Members of the public are to note this development and henceforth, direct all tax and revenue payments accordingly.
“Cash payments to individual or corporate bodies’ accounts shall no longer be tolerated,’’ he said.
The chairman assured that sensitisation would be carried out across the district for proper dissemination of the development. (NAN)
7th August, 2024.
C.E.
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