People Opinion :
BETWEEN THE KATSINA STATE BOARD OF INTERNAL REVENUE AND THE TAX DEFAULTERS
By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi.
It came as a shock to learn that the major tax defaulters are the co-orporate bodies that ought to be in the forefront of organisations that pay their taxes promptly.
Unfortunately, this is not the case in Katsina State. If anything, such organisations are in the forefront of those who do not pay their taxes.
Mustafa Mohammed Suraj, the Chairman of Katsina Board of Internal Revenue it was who disclosed this when he led some staff of the Board to the offices of those companies who, according to him, have not been paying their taxes as and when due, as reported by Trust Television. In fact, some of them have been defaulting in paying their taxes, according to him.
There are also the untouchables, those individuals who are too powerful to be messed up with. I am talking about the people who feel they are too close to power to be disturbed by irritants like the payment of annual tax.
He gave them two weeks within which to pay up their taxes or face the consequences of their actions.
By cooperate bodies, I am talking about organisations like banks and KEDCO. The banks in particular declare revenues in billions every year, yet they do not pay their taxes.
So is KEDCO. This is another organisation that does not pay its tax. A big shame, if you ask me. KEDKO is supposed to add value to the society in States like Katsina, Kano and Jigawa. Does it do so? A big no, if you want my opinion. It only adds the woes of the society it operates.
Although the topic of this write-up is supposed to be about those organisations that do not pay their taxes, the case of KEDCO is more painful.
The company is supposed to add value to the society, hence the reason why it was sold (given for peanuts) to those who controlled the country.
It used to be part of the COMMONWEALTH, but these people claimed to have the answers, only to show to the world that they are also nothing but groups of SHYLOCS. They only fleece the people without adding any value to their lives.
They are supposed to give us light, but light is not what they give us. In the parlance of Nigerians, half-current is what they give us. Even that is a misnomer, because what they actually give is less than half of what we call ‘half current’. If you doubt me look at your ceiling fan, if you are fortunate to have one. You then realise that you are being taken for a ride by those that are supposed to serve you.
You may ask ‘why the ceiling fan?’. Well, that is because most houses have the ‘green bulb’ which requires very little power to fire it on, and if you happen to be in the vicinity, you would swear that KEDCO has gone full blast. That is the effect of the ‘green bulb’. I’m not excergrating.
The last time the common man has full light was in the days of NEPA. What he now has is Hallf light, which, in the parlance of the ordinary man, is ‘near nothing’. That is what KEDCO gives him, and there is nothing the common man can do becouse KEDCO is owned by the members of the ESTABLISHMENT.
When he tried to buy the Katsina Rolling Company for Katsina State government, the late Umaru Musa Yar’adua, then Governor of the State, was disingenuously told by then President Obasanjo that the Katina State Government could not run it successfully since the Federal Government could not run it well.
Reading between the lines , it is obvious that the President has another ace up his sleeve. And he has, because the next we will hear about it is that it has been sold to an unknown Indian company, which has its headquarters in Mina, the capital city of Niger State. Not Abuja, not Lagos but Mina, meaning one of the former Heads of State has bought it. And it turned out to be one of the Hill top Generals. The one who is never sated with money.
This means that KEDCO or what it represents is just one of the many Commonwealths that was sold to those who feel that they are too important to add value to the society. In their estimation, they are made only to add depth to their pockets not value to the society.
What the society has now is a monstrous disease that affects the common man.
And woe unto you if you do not have the money to buy a generator. Yes, most of them import the generators some of us use.
They even have the audacity to put a clause that will discourage future governments from nationalising the light Commonwealth.
According to them, any future government that contemplates nationalising the light Commonwealth, must first of all pay them a neat sum of N31 Trillion.
Well, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, over to you, if you are not part of the generator importation conclave. You have done the unthinkable in the petrol sector, do another unthinkable job in the power sector, please.
A couple of months ago, there was light for three days in succession in Katsina Town, and people started jubilating that KEDCO had reformed. Well, it turned out that the jubilation was too early. It was not the doing of KEDCO, but the doing of the bank that borrowed it the money it used to buy the Katsina, Kano and Jigawa parts of the Light Commonwealth.
It seized the company and promised to return it only when its full money was paid back to it.
And that is what happened, which was when the people learned the truth about KEDCO.
By the way, throughout today the longest period we remained with light was 20 minutes, the rest of the day we remained without light. We remained without power from KEDCO even as I write this piece.
From the pen of Former Governor Masari's DG Media Mr. Malumfashi