Palpable fears are currently disturbing Imo citizens both at home and outside the state as the State Government may have imposed what they described as unknown tax of N3,000 on every citizen irrespective of your place of residence monthly.
Details gathered by Nigeria Business Hilights across many community meetings in Lagos show that the state government through their traditional rulers has ordered every community in Imo State to compile a register of adults from 18 years of age both male and female for onward transmission to the State government.
Whereas efforts to get further details from any government official failed as at press time, some Imo indigenes who do business in Lagos decried the development, saying it’s unfair to live in another state and pay tax in another state.
A lawyer, Mr. Chidi Ukandu in an interview said the move “if real, is an insult on the collective intelligence of Imo citizens and everybody must rise to stop it”.
“Nigerian tax laws are very clear. You pay tax where you reside as taxes are not paid based on citizenship unless dues as may be agreed by different communities.
Some of the community meetings visited weekend said the new tax order is coming with a threat that “Any community that fails to be remitting the N3,000 tax on a monthly basis will be merged with other communities, thus forcing them to lose their autonomy.
Out of fears, communities are said to be compiling the names of all taxable adults both male and female for the government.
It would be recalled that the state’s debt profile rose exponentially recently, forcing contractors to sue the government and obtained a judgment that froze several state’s government accounts pending when the debts are cleared. The state also owes backlog of debts to pensioners and civil servant. The state recently forced Primary School pensioners to receive 70 per cent of their monthly pension, forfeiting 30 per cent.
