A group operating under the aegis of ‘Kwara Must Change’ has cautioned Igbo traders in the state against weaponizing ethnicity in their dispute with authorities over enforcement of tax laws.
The group said that, turning the dispute over tax liability into ethnic protest is the height of insensitivity by the Igbo traders association and an attempt to blackmail the Kwara State government.
This was contained in a statement issued and signed by the Convener of the group, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, who said that tax laws are enforced on all businesses in the state, not based on tribe, sex, or religion, but based on business and volume of transactions and turning tax-related dispute into ethnic protest is the height of insensitivity.
“Businesses making money in the state should pay their fair share of taxes so that they can hold the government accountable to its responsibilities.
“All businesses in the state are benefiting from infrastructure and enabling environment provided by the state and it is improper to attempt to scandalize the state government through malicious ethnic protest, in an attempt to evade tax or shortchange government.
“Tax underpayment amounts to shortchanging the government and by extension, the people of Kwara State, and this will affect the pace of development in the state.
He admonished the traders to operate within the ambit of the state law to seek redress over any tax-related dispute, rather than resort to unnecessary ethnic blackmail, saying group solidarity will not erase individual tax liabilities.
“Traders associations don’t owe taxes, neither can they dictate tax liabilities of their members, individual businesses are taxed based on law and if the state authorities say certain businesses are owing taxes, those businesses should engage the authority in line with laid down rules and regulations, not create their own rule and attempt to coerce the authority into succumbing to their dictate through ethnic blackmail”. He concluded.
