By Eberechi Obinagwam
Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has appealed to the Federal Government of Nigeria to addresses the multiple taxation in the country as it embarks on major finance reforms.
PENGASSAN President,, Ndukauba Ohaeri, made the appeal in a statement tagged, “A Renewed call at Nation Building through Responsive Governance,” on Friday.
He lamented that multiple taxation had become a threat to the growth of businesses across the country.
His words: “The government cannot be more interested in collecting taxes than creating enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
“Nigeria’s current ranking as 131st from 146th in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index remains a concern thus the issue of multiple taxation by the federal, state and local government requires urgent attention.
“We need to move beyond the rhetoric of failed attempts to harmonizing tax laws as it concerns business ventures in Nigeria. More importantly, the government needs to audit the current business environment to identify the key factors causing businesses to fail in the country and explore possible options for solution.
“For example, a nation with 200 million people is still struggling with increasing power beyond 10, 000MW! Where are the effective means of transporting goods from seller to buyers? How good are the roads? Where is bulk rail transport? Why is it that only Lagos ports are fully operational? “
Besides, he said that the sectors such as Aviation and Manufacturing among others were never investor-friendly because of high cost of operations and taxes.
“It is important to be consistent with policy and its implementation. For example, the cashless policy is a case in point where on one hand the government is encouraging people to go cashless and on the other hand charging them for doing so in a quest and drive to make more money.” he said
On Oil and Gas Industry, he assured that they would keep advocating the application of the NLNG ownership and operating model for the nation’s refineries as one of the best ways to maximize the national assets. He however urged the government to look beyond politics and reconsider the passage of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) as it will remove some of the barriers of efficiency, address loopholes of corruption and position the industry for greater competitiveness and productivity.