Enugu State governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, has announced plans by his administration to set up a committee to look into allegations of tax increase in the state, explaining that his administration had only widened the tax net without increasing the tax rate.
Mbah, who also explained that the surge in the state’s Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, were due to the introduction of e-payment and technology by his administration to plug revenue leakages, what he described as false narratives on taxation in Enugu State on beneficiaries of the old order of corruption in revenue collection in the state.
The governor stated this while fielding question during a media chat with journalists at Government House, Enugu, during the week.
Recall that Enugu State raked in N180.05 billion, up from N37 billion in 2023, to rank 5th on 2024 IGR table of the 36 states and FCT released by the National Bureau of Statistics about a fortnight ago.
Lagos state ranked 1st with N1.26 trillion, Rivers State placed second with 317.3 billion, FCT ranked 3rd with N282.3 billion, while Ogun State ranked 4th with N194.9 billion.
Diffusing the allegation of high tax burdens by the opposition in the state, Mbah said,
“The Taxation thing that you hear is actually misplaced. But I have also committed to setting up a committee that will include the market unions, the civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations, and other relevant groups, so that they can do a review of what is happening in our tax space and come up with a report.
“My belief is that based on what we have done so, we have not increased the tax rate. In fact, even under the laws, we are not able to do that. This is because the issue of personal income tax or company income tax is a matter that is legislated by the National Assembly. That is to say that those rates can only be adjusted by laws made by the National Assembly. Those numbers there were not legislated by the Enugu State House of Assembly but by the federal legislature.
“The only thing we did, which is something we believe that is now being politicised, is that we displaced some entrenched interests because we have plugged the leakages we had in the system before now. Payments are now made directly to the state coffers. We now have e-payments. The era of people going to market with paper and harassing people like drivers and Keke to collect cash payments from them is gone.
“Once you initiate programmes and policies like this, you will be displacing some entrenched interests and be sure to know that they will fight back. They won’t just go down without fighting.
“This falsehood is also narrated in such a way that if you have not done your own independent investigation, you will not know. You may be tempted to agree that the narrative is true.
“But that notwithstanding, as a leader, we must be listen I believe that we need to probe further to know perhaps there are somethings we are not aware of. This is why I said let us constitute the committee and it will be done pretty soon.”
