The Joint Tax Board (JTB) has organised a sensitisation and engagement programme for stakeholders in tax collection in Katsina State on Single Inter-State Road Tax Sticker (SIRTS) and Single Haulage Fee (SHF).
The sensitisation, which was held on Wednesday in Katsina, was organised by the JTB in collaboration with the Katsina State Board of Internal Revenue Service.
The JTB Executive Secretary, Hajiya Obomeghie Nana-Aisha, said the aim was to end illegal tax collection, extortion on the highways and also to block revenue leakages in the country.
“The initiative us being implemented by the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) internal revenue service under the aegis of the JTB.
“It is a single sticker that if you buy it at N3,500 in one state, it can be used across all the 36 states including the FCT and nobody will harass you anywhere you go.
“In order to make sure that everybody benefits from that N3,500, there is a portion of it that belongs to Internal revenue service, the vendor and the consultant,” she said.
Nana-Aisha explained that the exercise was arranged to provide ample sensitisation and awareness to relevant stakeholders and bring them into a comprehensive understanding of the SIRTS and SHF initiative.
She added that the exercise was to make sure that the programme was successful at the grassroot/state level as the participants were pivotal and critical to the seamless implementation of the initiative.
“As we are all aware, the incidences of multiple taxation, harassment and extortion, have been commonplace on the nation’s highways for years, and this has had negative ripple effects.
She said it had taken negative impacts on the safety and the well-being of road users and operators across the nation’s transportation corridors.
According to her, the final cost of goods to consumers and end-users is also affected.
Nana-Aisha said that while the legislation placed road taxes administrationon on state governments, encroachment by non-state government actors had made the administration incoherent, disorganised and an avenue for indiscriminate collections to take place.
She pointed out that they were confident that the objectives of the initiatives would be met, which included the reduction of incidences of double taxation via the sales of multiple emblems and stickers.
Ohers were harmony, uniformity and coherence of road tax administration nationwide, restoration of the integrity of the road tax collection process and ensuring that road tax collections were remitted appropriately to government coffers.
“We ensure the elimination of illegal roadblocks in the nation’s transportation corridors, economic empowerment via job creation for prospective vendors and agents.
This will enhance the IGR of states to drive socio-economic and infrastructural development within their respective jurisdictions.
“This exercise has been segmented into various sections, and we implore all participants to pay attention to the resource persons that will be leading the various discourse to fully understand the essence of the exercise,” she advised.
Earlier, the Executive Chairman, Katsina State Internal Revenue Board, Alhaji Mustapha Muhammad-Surajo, said the sensitisation was to rub minds to see how they could hermonise the tax collection.
He called on the participants to pay attention and take the exercise with kin interest because they were important to the success of the programme by reaching to the yearnings of taxpayers. (NAN)
