Respite is far from Nigerians as the burden of tax keeps increasing by the day. Citizens are lamenting the imposition of a half per cent tax on electronic transactions, code-named Cyberspace Levy. Now, the Federal Government is also asking the P.O.S operators to register with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
They say the registration of P.O.S is another ploy by government to make money.
Nigerians who spoke with Blueprint say, government is unmindful of the sufferings faced by the ordinary citizens.
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) also kicked against the Central of Nigeria CBN new directive for banks to charge 0.05 per cent cybersecurity levy on electronic transactions, saying that it will be heavy burden to individual and businesses.
“Our purchasing power has been reduced to almost nothing. First, the government came with the removal of fuel subsidy, followed by the serious ‘devaluation of the naira, the hike in electricity tariff, and now further impoverishing us by the cyberspace levy”, said Timothy Osukoya, a business man in Lagos.
Wale Adioye, a banker said, the policy should work better with proper address of individuals. “But as you know, people moving from place to place have not registered any new address. Not even the former one was known. When I was on school, when people move from one location to another, we used to register addresses. So what the government want to do is simply to tax people”, he said.
Festus Odigwe, another business man said, the worse part of it is that the government has done anything to increase salaries. He said, even the private sector find it difficult to increase salaries because government policies have not encouraged businesses to strive.
“You can see multinational companies leaving the country and a lot of local companies closing shop. The government is clearly not in touch with the realities on ground”, said Festus.
Susan Ochuko, a politician said, they are simply raising to feed members of the National Assembly, pay their increasing allowances and buy more SUVs.
The Chamber noted that by this directive, individuals and businesses will be burdened with an additional levy amidst unsettled performance crises with power supply after the recently reviewed electricity tariffs.
Reacting to the CBN directive, Director-General of LCCI, Chinyere Almona, urged the government to reconsider the implementation of this cybersecurity levy as its timing is wrong, and the justification is unclear.
