Stakeholders Seek Awareness, Humane Implementation Of New Tax Law

Some stakeholders in manufacturering and financial sectors have called for intensified enlightenment on the new Tax Law, and a human face in the implementation.

The stakeholders made the call at a one-day conference on the new national tax law held at the African Heritage Institution (Afri-Heritage), Enugu on Wednesday.

The conference was hosted by Afri-Heritage in collaboration with the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service (ESIRS), with the theme: “Stakeholders Sensitisation on the New Tax Law in Nigeria.”

Speaking, Mrs Ifeoma Ezeasor, representing the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu, said that the awareness on the new law had been relatively low within the zone.

Ezeasor noted that it was only in Enugu State, that the state government and its revenue service created fora regularly to enlighten residents about the new tax law.

She noted that further enlightenment had become necessary as the new tax law widened the tax net and tax return filing to include all Nigerians having a business notwithstanding how small.

Corroborating, an entrepreneur in Enugu, Chief Ignatius Udeh, said that many traders were not aware of filing annual tax returns.

Udeh noted that the awareness on the law, meant to reinvigorate revenue earnings should be stepped down in indigenous languages.

“We call on institutions and the ESIRS to do more to bring this enlightenment to our markets, market association meetings and other traders gathering,” he said.

A financial expert, Chief Chidi Ezema, also called for the implementation of the new tax law in phases even as he called for further awareness on the issue.

Ezema, who is the Managing Partner, Chukwudi Ezema Co. Chartered Accountant and Tax Practitioners, said that the implementation of the new tax law should have a human face and serious consideration of other socioeconomic factors.

In his view, another tax expert, Dr Mark Abani, said that the new tax law had taken consideration of the poor and those in the informal sectors with annual profit less than N800,000.

Abani noted that the new law had made it easy for each person’s earning and profit to be monitored and everybody making money notwithstanding layers of businesses or money making ventures one was involved in.

“The misinformation in tax law is due to the fact that some rich people do not want to pay their appropriate tax and do not want government agencies or personnel to look into their earnings and profitability,” he said.

The Executive Chairman of the ESIRS, Mr Emmanuel Nnamani, said that the new tax law had helped Enugu State abolish multiple taxation and harmonise payment electronically for the ease and benefit of all.

Nnamani said that with the harmonisation of taxes and blocking of financial tax leakages, the state internally generated revenue had grown geometrically for the benefits of all.

Earlier, Director of Afri-Heritage, Prof. Osita Ogbu, represented by Mr Chukwuma Okolo, said that the institution, known for its empirical research on applied economics and politics, had brought experts and concerned stakeholders together to discuss the new tax law.

He said it was the institution’s contributions towards awareness creation of the tax laws.