GSM tax: Labour, CLOs fume, threaten showdown
Labour movements and civil rights organisations are on a collision
course with the President Muhammadu Buhari administration over the
proposed communication tax.
Groups, including the Nigeria Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress, Civil Liberty Organisations, in separate interviews with
Saturday PUNCH in Abuja on Friday, vowed to shoot down the GSM bill.
The bill, which has been submitted to the National Assembly by the
Ministry of Communications, will empower the Federal Government to
impose nine per cent taxation on all calls, texts and data packages if
passed into law.
The General Secretary of the NLC, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, described the
planned telecommunications bill as a bad policy with potential to deepen
poverty in the society.
“If they go ahead with it, we will also, through the National
Assembly public hearing, before passage into law, make our input to it,
by submitting a memorandum,” he said.
Ozo-Eson said that the tax was regressive as it would have more adverse effects on the poor than the rich.
He said that the poorest segment of the society needed telecommunication to run their lives and their small businesses.
Ozo-Eson stressed that while the NLC believed that the Federal
Government should come up with taxation to raise revenue, the burden
should not be on the poor.
He said, “We believe it is a bad policy, it will visit more hardship
on Nigerians by the very nature of the tax, it is a regressive tax
because even the poorest require communication to run their lives.
“Even the small traders depend of communication via GSM to be able to
transact their businesses and therefore the tax that is imposed across
board is regressive.
“And the burden is higher on the poor. While we agree that the
government should design taxes that should raise revenue, we believe
that progressive taxation would be the best way to do that.”
He urged Buhari’s administration to focus on the rich in the drive to regenerate revenue through taxation.
He said, “We always insist that you must do a tax system that does
not put unnecessary burden on the poor. We need a tax system that is
progressive, not regressive.
“When you have a tax system that is regressive, it means you are
placing undue burden on the poor in the society. A progressive tax
system gives relief to those at the very bottom of the income ladder so
that they are not taxed, or are even placed on minimal taxation. That is
how other societies function.
“And then, of course progressively, you tax those that are more
capable, and who have more income and more wealth. This is what we think
Mr. President must strive to put in place, to target the rich and the
wealthy.”
Ozo-Eson, who also commented on the claim by the Emir of Kano,
Muhammadu Sanusi, that the current administration had created
millionaires through the sale of foreign exchange, urged the monarch to
provide more facts on the issue.
The Trade Union Congress also condemned planned tax
The group, in a statement by its President and Acting
Secretary-General, Messrs. Bala Kaigama and Simeso Amachree
respectively, wondered how the government would expect workers in a
country with a minimum wage of N18,000 to pay such a tax in the face of
aggravated economic difficulties.
They said that the policy, which according to them, was designed to
exploit the impoverished masses, would discourage investments and cause
job losses.
The unionists warned the Federal Government to suspend the bill as
the masses expected to cough out the tax were already over-burdened with
multiple taxation.
Kaigama and Amachree said that it did not make economic sense to
initiate policies that could stifle businesses and worsen the woes of
the citizens.
The TUC leaders faulted the claim of the Minister of Communications,
Chief Adebayo Shittu, that the country could earn as much as N20bn
monthly from the passage of the proposed bill, and could help to
alleviate the economic challenges facing the country and fund budget
deficit.
Also, the President of Civil Liberties Organisation, Igho Akeregha,
said the planned GSM tax by the Federal Government would amount to
excessive oppression of Nigerians who had been severely burdened by the
government’s “warped economic policies.”
According to him, it is either the All Progressives Congress does not
articulate a sustainable political and economic development plan for
the country or President Muhammadu Buhari is insensitive and bereft of
ideas on how to govern.
Akeregha said, “The CLO shall resist the obnoxious and tyrannical
plan to further impoverish Nigerians by way of foisting devious tax on
them. We have a great tradition in the CLO of standing with the people
and defending their rights when the need arises.
“The CLO will definitely join forces with our allies in labour and
the CSO’s to resist the GSM tax which clearly is an extortionist agenda.
Enough is enough of this undemocratic assault on Nigerians.”
Akeregha said although the CLO had deliberately refrained from
joining issues with the current administration, it had become irrational
to be silent in the face of the unprecedented suffering that Nigerians
were going through.
He asked, “How can any sane person propose a bill to tax Nigerians
for use of GSM when the people are already too poor to feed themselves?
This idea is criminal as it seeks to abort and significantly infringe on
the rights of citizens to freely receive and impart information as
provided and guaranteed in the constitution.
“Already, Nigerians are paying so much for the use of GSM as all
kinds of taxes and levies are hidden in recharge cards while the network
providers rip citizens off through unsolicited network services amid
poor quality service.
“It’s only in Nigeria that citizens have remained docile and
complacent while being daily subjected to inhuman and degrading policies
by the same government they elected to govern them. It is the
inalienable right of all Nigerians irrespective of status, creed or
tribe to enjoy democracy dividends.”
On his part, the Board Chairman, International Society for Civil
Liberties and the Rule of Law, Emeka Umeagbalasi, said that Nigerians
were already over-burdened.
He said, “People are passing through challenges in the hands of the
Buhari administration. Nigeria under him has already graduated into a
jungle. Big businessmen and importers of consumable goods have shut down
their importation businesses and are divesting outside the country.
Exchange rates are acutely unsteady, unavailable and unaffordable.
“Even if you are able to source for foreign currencies locally, then
how will you remit them to your foreign business partners or factories?
The worse is that 95 per cent of imported items in Nigeria cannot be
manufactured locally. Recent media reports have it that 272 major
industries have shut down their industries in Nigeria and relocated
beyond the shores of the country and 180,000 jobs lost in the process.
“Imposition of GSM tax on consumers or network users will have no
meaningful effect on the embattled economy. It will go the same negative
way of payment of the forceful lodgment duty of N50.00 imposed on every
cash deposit and the Treasury Single Account; yet nothing meaningful
has happened.”
Umeagbalasi said that the economy would only thrive where government’s credibility among its people was positive.
He stated, “Unless Buhari’s administration reverses itself in all the
areas of its governance blunders, the country will continue to
rigmarole in intractable absurdities and confusions.
“We totally oppose any form of the so-called GSM tax. Nigerians are
already over-taxed, yet nothing to show for it. This is eight months
into the 2016 fiscal year, still Nigerians are yet to feel any positive
impact of public governance except mass hunger and poverty, falsehood,
deceit, propaganda, violence and bloodletting. It saddens our heart!”
Faulting the proposed tax, a constitutional lawyer and Chairman,
Egalitarian Mission for Africa, Dr. Olukayode Ajulo, said the proposed
bill was absolutely anti-people and a sure way of “killing” the
telecommunications industry in Nigeria.
He added, “The bill, if passed into law, will be impracticable due to
the social, political and legal irregularities imbedded therein that
would embarrass the government of President Buhari. Politically, almost
110 million people in Nigeria have access to mobile services that is
about two-thirds of Nigeria’s population. With two-third of the
population without a mobile connection, you can imagine the
consequence.”
On what the group will do, he said, “We are playing down the option
of street protests as we believe that once premium is given to superior
arguments at the National Assembly public hearing on the proposed bill,
the bill will find its rightful place in the dustbin of history.”
Shittu, had at a private sector dialogue session organised by the
Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Lagos last week, said that the
planned tax, which had passed first reading in both chambers of the
National Assembly, would help the Federal Government develop the ICT
sector and implement its policies and plans in an integrated manner.
According to him, the country will earn as much as N20bn monthly if the bill is passed into law.
In his reaction, Special Assistant, Media, to the Minister of
Communications, said, Mr. Victor Oluwadamilare, said, “The bill in the
National Assembly is not an executive bill; it is a private member bill.
“What the minister has told those against the bill is to aggregate their views and present them to the National Assembly.
“The government is doing its best to address the recession in the
country. If there is no money to run the government, the government can
look into all the sectors.
“There is need for all stakeholders to get involved and address their positions to the National Assembly.”
SOURCE: The punch.
