Labour to government: introduce property tax
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday advised both the federal and state governments to impose taxes on porperties in the country as a way of boosting internally generated revenue (IGR) and cushioning the effects of falling oil prices in the international market.
The workers also lamented that the rich hardly pay taxes in the country, urging the government to step up its game in the area of tax collection.
Reviewing activities of last year in Abuja, its President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba lamented that there are several estates built all over the country unoccupied, adding that such estates were proceeds of illicit deals.
He said: “Our business elite and multinational companies are notorious for evading taxes. The federal and states revenue services need to step up their game by identifying those that had not been paying taxes and get them to do so efficiently in the New Year.
“Government needs to impose property tax on the several hundreds of flashy estates and other structures in Abuja and several state capitals across the country. Some of these structures have laid unoccupied for years, making us to believe that they are properties developed with laundered funds.”
He lamented that it was regrettable that the effort of the leadership of the Senate to review downwards their wages and allowances was shut down by the entire Senate, adding that business in the National Assembly, as in virtually all other tiers of government, is continuing as usual with the political elite not willing to make any sacrifices that will affect their comfort zone.
Wabba said if the legislators failed to reduce their jumbo pay, the Congress will mobilise mass protest against them.
He said: “It is shocking that our lawmakers at the national level – Senators and members of the House of Representatives – would continue with the bizarre ostentatious standards they have set for themselves, for spending our collective patrimony.
“The planned purchase of 496 exotic cars costing several billions of naira, after getting car allowances, is not only outrageous but a mark of the manifest insensitivity of our legislators in the period of severe famine in the land.
“How can we, poor working people, millions of the unemployed and the poor masses, be expected to tighten our belts, while those supposedly elected by us to manage and provide succour for our collective wellbeing intend to live like emperors at a time that our economy is facing serious challenges?
“We call on the leadership of the National Assembly to remove this item from the budget for the National Assembly, and in the spirit of accountability and transparency, begin to make public the budget of the legislature. Failure to do this, NLC will in the New Year mobilise mass action against the National Assembly on these issues.”
The NLC said the 50 kobo reduction in the price of petrol announced by the government is a gimmick and an International Monetary Fund (IMF) inspired fuel price deregulation which will, in the long run, hurt the people.
Wabba said while the NLC commends the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration at getting the refineries capacity utilisation levels increased, he urged the government to be more creative in expanding local refining capacity by building decentralised modular refineries.
He said: “The current 50 kobo reduction in fuel price is obviously a gimmick. The pathway of international financial institutions which the current fuel subsidy removal act is taking will lead to increases in fuel pump price and attendant worsening of the hardships of poor working people.
“The state of Texas alone in the United States of America, has 26 refineries with a capacity of refining 4.72 million barrels per day. As a national priority, we must work to establish without any further dragging of our feet, modern refineries that will provide 100 per cent of our national needs.
“What we are against is the IMF-inspired fuel price deregulation.”
The NLC said the fate of the Chibok girls will always remain a litmus test of the victory of the state in the war against Boko Haram and expressed concern that there is no information about their possible whereabouts, asking the government to redouble its efforts at finding the school girls.
The Congress lamented that certain political and judicial office holders who are far less than 18,000 persons are earning an astonishing N1.126 trillion annually, pointing out that it is unfortunate that the National Assembly have refused to reduce their allowances as a way of reducing the cost of governance.
Wabba lamented that only eight of the 36 states of the federation are complying with the provisions of the Contributory Pension Act by paying the Retirement Savings of their workers, while another six states have commenced funding of their retirement benefit bond redemption fund accounts.
