A new tax drive has seen cab, bus and motorcycle drivers extorted as ever, with residents paying higher fares while the government loses money.
Amoo struggled to pick up broken parts of his Nissan car’s wing mirror, his demeanor lifeless. He mumbled a few words of complaint, threatening to seek justice. The 35-year-old commercial cab driver had just engaged in a brawl with an official of the Oyo State Park Management System on the busy end of Mokola-Roundabout area of Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
Mr Amoo said he was disappointed because the state government promised that the PMS officials would treat them better than they were treated when the National Union of Road Transport Workers held sway.In February, the Oyo State Government launched a new Park Management System with the intention of instilling sanity in motor parks and boosting the state Internally Generated Revenue .
“The PMS issue is still ongoing but we are up to the task. We shall not waver in our quest to grow the Internally Generated Revenue of Oyo State without burdening our people with unnecessary taxes,” he said.But contrary to Mr Makinde’s claim, PREMIUM TIMES’ investigation showed that the PMS officials have imposed a huge burden on taxi drivers, Okada and tricycle riders in the state with illegal taxes and levies, with attendant effect on residents who cough out higher fares.
PREMIUM TIMES’ investigation established that “Owo Seyi” , is the statutory levy imposed on transport workers by the Makinde-led government when it sacked the state chapter of the NURTW. According to a breakdown of the government’s levy, Okada and tricycle riders were expected to pay N100 only for daily ticket, while ‘Micra’ cab drivers and buses were mandated to pay N200.
On 12th and 13th of May when PREMIUM TIMES moved about the capital city and Oyo town, commercial drivers lamented the situation and cried for help amid poor earnings.“We still pay N50 at every junction between Oke Padre and Ojoo,” Ezekiel Dayo, a commercial cab driver, told PREMIUM TIMES. “This morning, I paid twice at Oke-Padre, thrice at Roundabout, then Sango, UI and Ojoo. The extortion is worse off now.
Kareem Adedayo, a resident and policy analyst, said the development means that Oyo loses so much to illegal taxes and extortion despite its taunted PMS reform. “We can definitely do better,” he said, adding that government has been able to raise the IGR from about N2 billion to N2.7 billion in November 2019.
The tax policy also states that authorities shall ensure that core tax functions, such as assessment and collection of taxes, are only carried out by career tax administrators who are public servants and not by ad-hoc consultants or agents.
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