By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Small business owners and
supermarket operators in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are under immense pressure to either close shops or relocate their businesses to other parts of the country due to incessant harassments from tax officials in Abuja.
Prompt News reports that proprietors of supermarkets, shopping malls, provision stores, dealers in general goods, foodstuffs and household items said that they are suffocating under multiple taxation as officials of several revenue agencies in FCT have made live unbearable for them.
A proprietor of a well known chains of supermarkets in FCT who pleaded anonymity alleged that officials of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Abuja Internal Revenue Services (AIRS), AMAC Revenue Agency and such agencies as Abuja Environmental Protection Authority (AEPA), etc, storm their business premises regularly to harass them.
The businessman claims that he pays taxes to these multiple agencies yet they kept coming back to harass them, adding that in spite of paying his annual taxes, these tax officials kept coming back to ask for money.
Another owner of a sprawling shopping mall in FCT who does not want his name in prints told Prompt News Friday, in Abuja at his business premises in the Apo area of the metropolis that multiple taxation is choking his business.
According to the business tycoon who is from the Southern part of Nigeria, both federal and local revenue collecting agencies are always on their necks to part with whatever they make in sales.
He also insisted that he has always played according to rules by filing his tax returns to the appropriate quarters yet their agents kept coming back to ask for payments of the same taxes already paid.
Prompt News investigations revealed that prices of goods in many supermarkets and shopping malls in the metropolis have risen astronomically as every item displayed on the counter has a new price tag, remarkably higher than what obtained earlier in the year.
For example, a tin of Titus sardines which cost N230 before the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic at supermarkets in Abuja now sell for N270 and N300 depending where you shop.
Also, a pack of 450g Golden morn baby food formerly sold at N500 is now sold for N750 at every shop in FCT just as a carton of noodles which cost N1, 800 three months ago now goes for N2, 300.
Other products on display at various shopping outlets in Abuja have all their prices marked upwards by the owners.
Further investigations revealed that the increase in prices of goods sold at the various supermarkets and shopping malls are the immediate results of the multiple taxation on the proprietors and owners of the business premises.
Prompt News reliably gathered that as long as these proprietors or business owners continue to face multiple taxation, the prices of goods at shopping malls and supermarkets in FCT will continue to go up.
