The Government and the Joint Tax Board has now made it a crime for any state in the country to engage anybody or an organisation other than the Board of Internal Revenue Service (BIRS) to collect approved taxes. Federal Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) are also banned from collection of taxes and levies because this is a violation of the Taxes and Levies Act.
According to the Guardian the decision;
was one of the high points of the new road-map for the implementation of NEC’s resolutions on harmonisation of taxes and levies across the federation developed following complaints to the Federal Government by operators of the real sector under the aegis of Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) in the country that the multiplicity of taxes and levies country-wide numbering over 79 were impinging on their expansion and was equally responsible for the shutdown of some businesses in the country.
What this means essentially is that State Contractors, agents, touts etc who on behalf of the State Government impose and collect all sorts of multiple taxes can no longer to that. Before now, Tax contractors collect taxes on behalf of States in exchange for a commission giving them the incentive to flout laws and imposse multiple charges on innocent businesses.
