By Godwin Anene
The Centre for Basic Rights Protection and Accountability Campaign has called on Obio-Akpor Local Government in Rivers state to abolish recent introduction of N10,000 levy on all Point Of Sales (POS) machine operators in the locality.
Coordinator of the group, Prince Wiro, made the call as teams of men self identified as officials acting on behalf of the council go about handing demand notice of the N10,000 to business owners providing POS in the area.
Prince Wokpara, the Agent in charge of the levy, however, said the amount being demanded is N5000, but copies of the demand notices being delivered to operators show N10,000 levy.
Wiro said, “The action amount to sheer extortion, insensitivity. You can’t be imposing N10,000 on shop owners who already pay between N5,000 and N15,000 as tenement rate for their shops or supermarkets.
“It’s double taxation. Some of these business owners also pay Personal Income Tax to the Rivers State Internal Revenue Service. We call on the Council authority to have a rethink on this policy in order not to worsen the plight of businessmen and women in Rivers.”
All three bank accounts on the demand notice being issued belong to the Obio/Akpor Local Government as verified.
However, texts and calls to the Council boss, Solomon Eke for clarifications on the public complain were ignored at the time of sending this report.
