Success Nwogu, Ilorin
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Kwara/Kogi states’ branch, and the Kwara Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, have kicked against the Manufacturing Processing Levy Bill currently before the Kwara State House of Assembly.
They stated that the bill, if passed, would cripple manufacturing, commercial and economic activities as well as worsen unemployment situation in the state.
In a joint media briefing in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital on Wednesday, the spokesman for the groups, Mr. Bioku Rahman, said the bill did not carry any rate unlike the Companies Income Tax, which is 30 per cent of total profit; Value Added Tax, which is five per cent; and Capital Gain Tax, which is 10 per cent.
He said, “Between MAN and KWACCIMA in Kwara State, we employed about 400,000 workers directly, about 98 per cent of who are indigenes of Kwara State; and indirectly employed or empowered about 800,000 and they pay their taxes and other levies to the Kwara State Government.”
According to him, the bill does not give room for any objection, adding that there is no tax law or levy that does not give room for objection.
He also said the bill empowered a commissioner to seal up a defaulting manufacturing industry if payment was not effected within 21 working days.
Rahman said it was surprising that without any recourse to any court, a commissioner could order the sealing up of an industry.
He said those who drafted the bill appeared to have undermined, what he called, “the grievous far-reaching ripple effects of this totalitarian action in the 21 century.”
He said the bill, if passed into law, would duplicate extant laws governing taxation and regulation of companies, adding that would amount to proliferation of laws and double taxation on their members.
He further said the bill would make products manufactured in Kwara
State to be non-competitive with others manufactured outside the state and might lead to exit of a few companies remaining in the state.
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