PROTOCOL

THE HON MINISTER OF FINANCE,

HON. MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS,

HON. COMMISSIONERS,

EXECUTIVE VICE-CHAIRMAN (EVC) OF NCC,

DIRECTOR GENERALS HERE PRESENT,

THE ORGANIZERS OF THIS CONFERENCE,

MEMBERS OF THE PRESS,

DISTINGUISHED LADIES AND GENTLE MEN. 

We congratulate the Honorable Minister of Communication Technolgy, Her Excellency, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, a Woman of Many parts and a Princess on the two sides a divide (A Princess of Ondo Kingdom, and a Princess of Lagos) for the successful hosting of this meeting, we congratulate the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communications Technology, and the entire members of the National Council of Communications who have traveled from far and near.

Madam, Minister…the strength and calibre of people you see here today attending the council meeting is a testimony to your good works, and I praye may your shadow never grow well.

We are the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria; the umbrella body of licensed providers of  a telecommunication services in Nigerian market.

The major objective of our Association is to foster inter-network cooperation and harmony amongst all

Telecom operators, with the Regulator, Government agencies, as well as provide a platform for industry/stakeholders

engagement and collaboration, for the advancement of the Nigerian telecommucations market.

We offer our message of goodwill and wish you all, success the deliberations and journey mercies back yo our homes.

These goodwill  message presents us an opportunity to mention the negative impact of multiple regulation and multiple taxation by various levels of Government and Agencies on the Telecommunications Operators and we are delighted that a number of the stakeholders are represented on this Council.

We are alarmed at the worrisome direction the quest for internally generated revenue is taking, particularly at the State and Local Levels.

Our members are constantly harassed, their Base Stations and Offices locked indiscriminately by Governments agencis, due to alleged refusal to pay taxes and levies that are unrecognized by law.

Telecom operators who are ours   Members have brought documents evidencing requests for taxes and levies that are, in our view, outside of what is prescribed by law. We hear also with evidences from our members, instances where State and Local Government Authorities have physically invaded offices, locked up Base Stations and employed other unwholesome tactics to enforce these taxes and levies.

In other instances, we are victims of multiple regulation and this has led to legal actions against our members, with several on going court cases in many States instituted against us by Stage State Government and Some MDAs.

While other countries in the world continually create enabling environment to encourage businesses and compete for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) which remains very scarce, doing business in Nigeria remains a key challenge with multiplicity of tax and multiplicity of regulations which serve as a disincentive to investors.

The immediate and long term effects of discouraging business include a negative impact on the ability to create new jobs due to the high operating costs, loss of revenue for Government in terms of taxes which can be legally obtained, slow or no economic growth, economic distress, closure of businesses and et al.

In addition to the statutory taxes levied on operators, the Telecommunications Operators pay Annual Operating Levy (AOL) of certain percentage (%) of earnings to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and are required in addition to pay various rates and charges to other Federal Government agencies (e.g. Consumer Protection Council, Nigeria Lottery Commission, Federal and State Ministry of Environment etc), authorities in every State and Local Government in which they operate;

We have observed that telecommunications operators are often singled out for discriminatory treatment and taxation by many MDAs and State Governments.

Our members site have been sealed in some states wherein the State Government demanded for payment of annual levy for Registration of business premises on each of telecom cell sites and upon refusal to make payments, they have in the past weeks sealed several telecom BTS sites including backbone sites, and they threaten to lock up more of the sites on an ongoing basis.

The side effect of the lockup sites are poor quality of service, economic loss to businesses that depends on Telecom services, inseecurity amongst others.

We have had instances where fees sites locked up in a particular state, led to loss of service in 10 neighbour bring states, including backbone facilities.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. There should be certainty in rates and certainty in the mechanism of collection – Rates should be as enshrined in statutes and government rather than tax consultants should collect taxes, because we know the higher the taxes, the more the fees for the consultants.

1. That intensive public education and stakeholder engagement is imperative for better understanding of issues and consequence of existing practices; such education should focus for example on the impact and long term effect of  multiple taxation on the economy and businesses in particular.

1. There is a need to highlight the consequences of multiple taxation which includes the relocation of businesses outside Nigeria evident in the manufacturing sector of the Nigerian economy, downsizing and retrenchment of staff, unemployment and loss of revenue to Government;
2. That challenges and conflicts in existing multiple regulatory and legal framework should be addressed. For example: conflicting demands for same and similar requirements by Federal and State Ministries, Department, Agencies (MDAs), Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) handled by the Federal Government are not recognized by State Government’s. Similarly those handled by SGs are not recognized by LGs resulting in payment for the same services to the three tier of Government.
3. That ambiguous phrases in the existing laws should be clarified; that definitions such as – the definition of urban, semi urban and rural areas, amount to multiple tax especially when recognizing the jurisdictions of the state and local governments.
4. That  in the enforcement of laws, revenue/government authorities should be service oriented in their approach to work; cases were mentioned of letters demanding payment on a day only for the operations to be sealed the day after the letter is received;
5. That whereas most of t v. CS x.;:n!nngxshe demands noted above typically start in the Southern part of the Country, such practices ultimately spread throughout the country like a virus – as such actions are quickly copied and replicated by Ministries, Department, Agencies.
6. Accordingly there is a need to coordinate the revenue generation drive of government to ensure it delivers the right and sustainable results for the good of all.

On behalf of all Telecommunications Operators in Nigeria who are our memebrs, we congratukate you and wish the council every success at the second communications council.

Thank you.

Engr. Gbenga Adebayo

Chairman

ALTON

Akure, 22nd August 2013.