Haruna
Kwankwanso writes below...
I’m trying to make sense of the nonsense,
which is how I view the proposed Communication Service Tax (CST) now being
debated at the National Assembly. Our federal legislators have in their wisdom
concluded that the best way to give Nigerians the dividends of democracy is to
impose another tax on the consumers and deplete their limited resources even
further.
We
have heard some corporates complain of multiple taxation, particularly the
telecom operators who claim being overtaxed by many arms of government. Now
these legislators have flung their net wider to drag in subscribers as well
into the quagmire.
The
Senate and House of Representatives are both reviewing this bill in parallel
with the likely intention to quickly pass it into law. If they succeed in that
plot, we will have to pay 9% more as CST. What this translates to is that if
you use N15,000 in a month for voice calls, SMS, data service and so on, you
will have to pay another N1,350 to your service provider for onward remittance
to the government. Your bill of N15,000 thereby becomes N16,350. The fact that
a subscriber is paying this tax on communication services does not exclude that
subscriber from paying Value Added Tax on the same communication services.
Subscribers now also have the challenge which only operators hitherto faced on
multiple taxation, which is to pay a similar tax on the same service.
It
is indeed sad though not surprising that our lawmakers are aiming to increase
the burden of the people they pledged to serve. After all, their outrageous
lifestyles are funded mostly from public funds.
It
is however our collective responsibility to fight for our rights by ourselves.
That is why various consumer rights groups and other bodies in the
communication sector must come together to fight this ill thought out law.
The
Nigerian consumer will bear the burden of this tax. VAT is bearable enough, but
with another tax called CST, investors will see their Return on Investment
(ROI) decrease and may have to review their future investment plans for
Nigeria.
How
do you scream for investors with the one side of your mouth and deter them with
the sounds from the other side of the same mouth?
I’m
still trying to make sense out of this nonsense.
Kwankwanso
is a telecoms subscriber in Abuja
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