The bus and Tricycle (keke) owners and drivers in Anambra State have appealed to Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo to create a conducive avenue where they could pay their taxes on daily, weekly and monthly basis to the State Government.
The Awka Zonal Chairman of the Tricycle Owners and Riders Association, Prince Collins Ozojiofor, made the appeal during press interview in Awka.
Prince Ozojiofor, who stated that the Keke owners and the riders in the state were in support of the the State Government’s new digital tax policy for all in the transport sector in the State, argued that it had created a conducive environment for the Government to collect its tax money seamlessly, rather than trusting it in the hands of few people whom he said do not return the tax money to Government coffer.
He said that their problem with the new digital tax policy of the Anambra State Government under the watch of Governor Soludo was the way and manner the tax process was structured and managed presently, adding that the Government had derailed completely from major objective behind the introduction of the Keke business by the Federal Government of Nigeria to alleviate poverty among the poorest of the poor in Country, especially the young Nigerian youths .
He noted that the main problem they are having with Governor Soludo was that they were being forced to pay for what they did not work for and therefore, wondered why the taskforce of the Government could force them to pay penalty for the days they did not go to work may be as a result of accident, ill health and travelling.
The Chairman, who said that they were advocating what he described as pay as you go, where the Keke riders could choose to pay on daily basis and not to pay for the days they did not work, maintained that the present tax system meted out with the tricycle operators in the state did not go down well with them .
He called for the redesigning of current tax system as it affects the tricycle operators and the owners so that they could pay for only the days they were on duty through the digital payment, adding that the State Government’s Tax Force could then apprehend the defaulters, prosecute them and made them to pay the stipulated penalty therein any time suitable to them.
He recalled that they supported the Governor during the election very well, hence he should hear their cry and come to their aid as the father of the State by dissuading the antics of the people who feed him with wrong information only for him to have wrong impression about the Keke riders in the State, stressing that they were not happy with the method of tax collection meted out to them now by the State Government.
“How could a Keke rider who is under high purchase cope with this new tax policy? How can a person, who depend on his daily income to carter for his family, feed and pay the school fees of his children, cope under this system?”, he said.
Also speaking, the Chairman, Awka and Onitsha Bus Drivers Association, Mr. Fred Nweke, corroborated Prince Ozojiofor,saying that the current modus operandi outlined by the State Government for the Keke and bus Drivers in the State needed some adjustment to tally with the current economic reality in the country.
He opined that they were not against the ongoing tax formula by the Government, but what they stood for, is for the Government to allow the taxpayment by their members to become optional, recalling what he called “daily toll” where they could pay on daily basis during the Willie Obiano administration.
