Enugu State government has introduced a consolidated tax regime and e-ticketing to ensure a one-stop shop revenue collection aimed at eliminating all forms of multiple taxations and touting all revenues accruing to the state.
The Executive Chairman of the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service, Emmanuel Nnamani who made the disclosure while briefing journalists in his office in Enugu said the new tax system would be launched on September 27 2023.
He also said that by the new formula, all the taxes such as business registrations, environmental levies, and all local government taxes on businesses operating in the state would be built into e-ticketing and pay yearly.
Nnamani further said that the state would also be embarking on Land Use Charge where every house in Enugu would be asked to pay Land Use Act.
The Chairman noted that the idea was to boost the state’s internal revenue to enable government provide adequate social amenities within the rural and urban areas for the people and grow the state GDP out of $4.4, adding that there was no way the state could grow its economy to $30 billion dollars when people are not paying taxes.
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“The aggressive financial drive is also part of Governor Peter Mbah’s target of raising the state gross domestic product (GDP) from $4.4billion to 30 $billion,” he said.
The Chairman said: “No economy of any nation or state can grow as expected without citizens paying their taxes, even in developed countries of the world. If you keep giving tax waver to people and organisations you are denying the citizens development.”
He disclosed that very soon, citizens of the state who fail to pay their taxes will no longer have access to the state government services such as education, hospital, among others “because for you to enjoy such amenities you must provide evidence of tax payment, as it would no longer be business as usual.”
The chairman also noted that the laws have been in existence before now, but that what the administration was doing was to revisit the laws and implement them.
He also pointed out that the new system was going to create employments as it would be handed over to agents and that already, government had concluded arrangements to engage five hundred thousand enforcers to help in enforcing the new system outside the agents who would also engage a lot of hands in e-ticketing across the state.
He also said that government would soon discuss with the traditional rulers and president generals of all the communities on how they would be paying to enable government do the necessary developments in their various domains.
