The Delivery Vehicle Owners Association of Nigeria has called for the speedy implementation of the tax reform bill before the National Assembly.
The association’s National President, Sabbastine Raphael, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Calabar on Sunday.
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Mr Raphael said that when implemented, the new tax law would help ease the “age-long suffering” of transporters, especially as it concerned carrying out their daily activities.
While saying that the proposed tax reform was the best policy of the federal government, Mr Raphael argued that it would give room for the harmonisation of taxes and levies and also checkmate the illegal collection of taxes on the roads.
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He noted that the reform would stop the illegality allegedly perpetuated on the nation’s highways by state and non-state actors.
He attributed these illegalities to one reason for the high cost of goods and services, especially food, in the country today.
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“For instance, there are close to 100 roadblocks between Calabar and Ogoja where you are meant to pay all manners of taxes and levies.
“I can tell you for free that 70 per cent of the taxes and levies are illegal. They use anything humanly possible, including weapons, to get you to pay.
“It is that bad that when you charge N100,000 for delivery between Calabar and Ogoja, you will be forced to call your people back home to send more money because of these payments.
“So, when implemented, the tax reform will be the best thing for all of us, especially the transporters,” he stated.
