Labour movements and civil rights
organisations are on a collision course with the PresidentMuhammadu Buhari
administration over the proposed communication tax.
Groups,
including the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress, Civil Liberty
Organisations, in separate interviews with Saturday PUNCH in
Abuja on Friday, vowed to shoot down the GSM bill.
The bill, which has been
submitted to the National Assembly by the Ministry of Communications, will
empower the Federal Government to impose nine per cent taxation on all calls,
texts and data packages if passed into law.
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| President Muhammadu Buhari |
The General Secretary of the NLC,
Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, described the planned telecommunications bill as a bad
policy with potential to deepen poverty in the society.
“If they go ahead with it, we
will also, through the National Assembly public hearing, before passage into
law, make our input to it, by submitting a memorandum,” he said.
Ozo-Eson said that the tax was
regressive as it would have more adverse effects on the poor than the rich.
He said that the poorest segment
of the society needed telecommunication to run their lives and their small
businesses.
Ozo-Eson stressed that while the
NLC believed that the Federal Government should come up with taxation to raise
revenue, the burden should not be on the poor.
He said, “We believe it is a bad
policy, it will visit more hardship on Nigerians by the very nature of the tax,
it is a regressive tax because even the poorest require communication to run
their lives.
“Even the small traders depend of
communication via GSM to be able to transact their businesses and therefore the
tax that is imposed across board is regressive.
“And the burden is higher on the
poor. While we agree that the government should design taxes that should raise
revenue, we believe that progressive taxation would be the best way to do
that.”
He urged Buhari’s administration
to focus on the rich in the drive to regenerate revenue through taxation.
He said, “We always insist that
you must do a tax system that does not put unnecessary burden on the poor. We
need a tax system that is progressive, not regressive.
“When you have a tax system that
is regressive, it means you are placing undue burden on the poor in the
society. A progressive tax system gives relief to those at the very bottom of
the income ladder so that they are not taxed, or are even placed on minimal
taxation. That is how other societies function.
“And then, of course
progressively, you tax those that are more capable, and who have more income
and more wealth. This is what we think Mr. President must strive to put in
place, to target the rich and the wealthy.”
Ozo-Eson, who also commented on
the claim by the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, that the current
administration had created millionaires through the sale of foreign exchange,
urged the monarch to provide more facts on the issue.
The Trade Union
Congress also condemned planned tax
The group, in a statement by its
President and Acting Secretary-General, Messrs. Bala Kaigama and Simeso
Amachree respectively, wondered how the government would expect workers
in a country with a minimum wage of N18,000 to pay such a tax in the face of aggravated
economic difficulties.
They said that the policy, which
according to them, was designed to exploit the impoverished masses, would
discourage investments and cause job losses.
The unionists warned the Federal
Government to suspend the bill as the masses expected to cough out the tax were
already over-burdened with multiple taxation.
Kaigama and Amachree said that it
did not make economic sense to initiate policies that could stifle businesses
and worsen the woes of the citizens.
The TUC leaders faulted the claim
of the Minister of Communications, Chief Adebayo Shittu, that the country could
earn as much as N20bn monthly from the passage of the proposed bill, and could
help to alleviate the economic challenges facing the country and fund budget
deficit.
Also, the President of Civil
Liberties Organisation, Igho Akeregha, said the planned GSM tax by the Federal
Government would amount to excessive oppression of Nigerians who had been
severely burdened by the government’s “warped economic policies.”
According to him, it is either
the All Progressives Congress does not articulate a sustainable political and
economic development plan for the country or President Muhammadu Buhari is
insensitive and bereft of ideas on how to govern.
Akeregha said, “The CLO shall
resist the obnoxious and tyrannical plan to further impoverish Nigerians by way
of foisting devious tax on them. We have a great tradition in the CLO of
standing with the people and defending their rights when the need arises.
“The CLO will definitely join
forces with our allies in labour and the CSO’s to resist the GSM tax which
clearly is an extortionist agenda. Enough is enough of this undemocratic
assault on Nigerians.”
Akeregha said although the CLO
had deliberately refrained from joining issues with the current administration,
it had become irrational to be silent in the face of the unprecedented
suffering that Nigerians were going through.
He asked, “How can any sane
person propose a bill to tax Nigerians for use of GSM when the people are
already too poor to feed themselves? This idea is criminal as it seeks to abort
and significantly infringe on the rights of citizens to freely receive and
impart information as provided and guaranteed in the constitution.
“Already, Nigerians are paying so
much for the use of GSM as all kinds of taxes and levies are hidden in recharge
cards while the network providers rip citizens off through unsolicited network
services amid poor quality service.
“It’s only in Nigeria that
citizens have remained docile and complacent while being daily subjected to
inhuman and degrading policies by the same government they elected to govern
them. It is the inalienable right of all Nigerians irrespective of status,
creed or tribe to enjoy democracy dividends.”
On his part, the Board Chairman,
International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Emeka
Umeagbalasi, said that Nigerians were already over-burdened.
He said, “People are passing
through challenges in the hands of the Buhari administration. Nigeria under him
has already graduated into a jungle. Big businessmen and importers of
consumable goods have shut down their importation businesses and are divesting
outside the country. Exchange rates are acutely unsteady, unavailable and
unaffordable.
“Even if you are able to source
for foreign currencies locally, then how will you remit them to your foreign
business partners or factories? The worse is that 95 per cent of imported items
in Nigeria cannot be manufactured locally. Recent media reports have it
that 272 major industries have shut down their industries in Nigeria and
relocated beyond the shores of the country and 180,000 jobs lost in the
process.
“Imposition of GSM tax on consumers or network
users will have no meaningful effect on the embattled economy. It will go the
same negative way of payment of the forceful lodgment duty of N50.00 imposed on
every cash deposit and the Treasury Single Account; yet nothing meaningful has
happened.”
Umeagbalasi said that the economy
would only thrive where government’s credibility among its people was positive.
He stated, “Unless Buhari’s
administration reverses itself in all the areas of its governance blunders, the
country will continue to rigmarole in intractable absurdities and confusions.
“We totally oppose any form of
the so-called GSM tax. Nigerians are already over-taxed, yet nothing to show
for it. This is eight months into the 2016 fiscal year, still Nigerians are yet
to feel any positive impact of public governance except mass hunger and
poverty, falsehood, deceit, propaganda, violence and bloodletting. It
saddens our heart!”
Faulting the proposed tax, a
constitutional lawyer and Chairman, Egalitarian Mission for Africa, Dr.
Olukayode Ajulo, said the proposed bill was absolutely
anti-people and a sure way of “killing” the telecommunications industry in
Nigeria.
He added, “The bill, if passed
into law, will be impracticable due to the social, political and legal
irregularities imbedded therein that would embarrass the government of
President Buhari. Politically, almost 110 million people in Nigeria have access
to mobile services that is about two-thirds of Nigeria’s population. With
two-third of the population without a mobile connection, you can imagine the
consequence.”
On what the group will do, he
said, “We are playing down the option of street protests as we believe that
once premium is given to superior arguments at the National Assembly
public hearing on the proposed bill, the bill will find its rightful place in
the dustbin of history.”
Shittu, had at a private sector
dialogue session organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry in
Lagos last week, said that the planned tax, which had passed first reading in
both chambers of the National Assembly, would help the Federal Government
develop the ICT sector and implement its policies and plans in an integrated
manner.
According to him, the country
will earn as much as N20bn monthly if the bill is passed into law.
In his reaction, Special
Assistant, Media, to the Minister of Communications, said, Mr. Victor
Oluwadamilare, said, “The bill in the National Assembly is not an executive
bill; it is a private member bill.
“What the minister has told those
against the bill is to aggregate their views and present them to the National
Assembly.
“The government is doing its best
to address the recession in the country. If there is no money to run the
government, the government can look into all the sectors.
“There is need for all stakeholders to get involved
and address their positions to the National Assembly.”
Source: News Arena
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