By Patrick Ochei
The highly revered Omu Anioma, HRM Obi Martha Dunkwu has lauded a group under the name, Delta State Tax Justice and Good Governance Platform for carrying out sensitization and advocacy against a situation where those in the formal sector are double taxed or not getting value for their tax payment as a result of ineffective mode of administering the collecions.
The group in collaboration with CISLAC and OXFAM, today 4th March, 2022, paid an advocacy visit to the Palace of Omu Anioma where they solicited her support in making the tax payers in the informal sector know their rights and government seeing reasons to streamline payment of taxes into a single form.
Omu Dunkwu said that the existence of government in market for instance, is not to add more burden to the struggling petty traders and others but to alleviate their suffering by ensuring they are not double taxed and that they benefit from the dividends of paying taxes.
Omu Dunkwu frowned at the situation where State Government, Local Governments, Ministry of Environment and others collect taxes in multiple ways from those in informal sector, adding that such tax burden should be discouraged.
Ealier, the Coordinator of the Tax Justice and Good Governance Platform, Onyeka Ejafu had appealed to Omu to add her voice to the injustice in the informal sector.
She said those making up the petty traders, artisans, transporters and many more enterprising small business are being mistreated in the process collecting taxes from them.
Onyeka stressed that the group had been carrying out sensitization and advocacy in the past years so as to equip those in this category with information on how to pay their taxes and get value for paying.
She said it was discovered too that these tax payers more often than not, sustain injuries and loss of property in the process of forcing payment out of them.
The Coordinator hinted that CISLAC and OXFAM came up with brilliant ideas on how to stop double taxation which informed the advocacy as part of protecting them against the sharp practices.
