By Charles Ayodele
Printers, artisans and other shop owners at the Mathew/Ojudo axis of Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital, have appealed to governor Oyebanji to intervene in what they described as arbitrary tax hike on their shops by officials of the State Board of Internal Revenue.
They made the appeal during a peaceful protest to show their grievances on the development with placards of various inscriptions, such as; “Your tax is killing, Mr BAO, we are very scared, BAO save our lives, don’t kill Ekiti, Mr BAO, don’t frustrate us, Ekiti is not Lagos, stop multiple taxation”.
One of the leaders of the affected shops who is a printer, Mr Adesola Aremo explained that it is not that they don’t want to pay tax, rather they are against the unjustifiable sudden increase by the internal revenue and the approach they apply in coming to lock up their shops even as early as six o’clock in the morning thereby denying them access to their means of livelihood.
He said they have evidence of their tax payments which they are willing to show to governor Oyebanji if the need arises.
According to him, “we have people of diverse businesses, tailors, printers, pepper sellers and others. You can see this is a business environment. The whole thing started in 2022 when the Ekiti State Board of Internal Revenue assured them of favourable charges. But surprisingly, by 2023 they came up with tax hike where those paying between N7,000, and N10,000 yearly began to pay N45 and above. While in 2024 the N25,000, N45,000, N50,000 payments were jerked up to between N180,000, N200,000, N300,000 and N400,000 per annum”.
Another business owner, Akin Adeolu, appreciated governor’s efforts towards the wellbeing of the people. However, he denounced the actions of the state revenue staff considering the harsh economic situation in the country which is more unfavorable to small -scale businesses.
He appealed that the charges should be reviewed and given a ‘human face’ rather than being arbitrary.Meanwhile, when visited by Journalists, the Executive Chairman of Ekiti State Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Niran Olatona, said he was surprised to hear about the protest saying he was told by one of his directors that some people came earlier about the issue which according to him was resolved amicably.
Olatona said there’s no tax without the law backing it up. Stressing that law is tax and that tax is law. “We have no choice but to always ensure that we comply with the law”.
In his word, “the law is very clear, if anybody feels he’s being charged beyond what he should be charged, protest doesn’t solve it. We don’t collect collective taxes but basically Personal Income Tax and before we collect any tax, we would have given a notice of assessment to indicate what to be paid.
“You have 30 days within which you can react. You discuss, you establish it and proof beyond reasonable doubt that you were over charged, then the tax personnel would review the assessment downward.
“What often happened is that some of our people don’t keep the regular books of account and audited financials to enable us assess them appropriately.
“In many cases, we have to use what we called best of judgment which is presumptive strategies, applicable in Nigeria or anywhere in the world.
However, the Chairman urged them to still approach his office for a meeting for more sensitization.
