Business

MAN canvasses tax waivers to boost productivity

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) Kwara/Kogi states branch has called on tiers of government to grant tax waivers to its members to boost productivity in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic period.
This call was made by the newly elected Chairman of Kwara/Kogi Chapter, Pharmacist Bioku Rahmon of Bioraj Pharmaceutical LTD at the 6th Annual General Meeting held in Ilorin on Thursday.
Rahmon who will be serving a two -year tenure took over from Dr. Kamoru Yusuf of KAMWIRE Industry.
He said ” manufacturers generally have a lot of challenges ranging from government policies,economic situation and individual capacity. So our immediate challenge is to ease problems of members especially as regards taxation.
“There is no government worldwide that does not know that over taxation cripples industrial activities. Today in Nigeria not up to 35 percent of industry are doing well but government expect them to pay their taxes.
“There are statutory taxes that we all know about like those that are charged by the local, state and the federal governments and through commercial laws stipulated. However, we found out that to rake in their internally generated revenue, government at all levels introduce some funny taxes for the manufacturing sector.
“On our part what we do is to come to roundtable discussion with government agencies to let them know that some of these taxes are illegal and not suitable for industries. So we are not to confront the government as it’s not the policy trust of this new executive but to dialogue, embark on advocacy to allow government to see why they don’t need to tax us.
“If government can grant tax waivers to us it will be excellent because as a result of this pandemic situation governments in advanced countries are already granting tax waivers to players in their manufacturing sector. Though, it’s not mandatory that government takes it but we’ll sell the idea to them as a panacea to boost productivity of our states.
“You will recall that recently government granted tax holiday to the small scales enterprises and that can be extended to the bigger companies.
The Chairman stressed that another target is to bring more members into the fold and to get a befitting Secretariat before his tenure elapses.
According to him, the executive will partner with states government to revive the moribund industries and engage owners of such industries on training and retraining for knowledge on the industrial activities.
The Chairman encouraged members to use this pandemic predicament to seek for government loans as penciled down by Central Bank of Nigeria as intervention, Bank of Industry and other financial institutions to increase their manufacturing activities.
He said ” we also call on the Federal Government to extend the moratorium period for manufacturers to enjoy the benefits of these loans.”

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