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Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State, yesterday, ordered revenue collectors in the state to stop indiscriminate taxation of the less privileged persons selling farm produce in local markets. Instead, he charged them to go for big-time property owners and business moguls.
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The governor gave the order in his office in Abakaliki during the swearing-in of members of Revenue Appeal Commission, saying that it was inhuman to tax vegetable sellers and other petty traders in the state.
He disclosed that he would soon put in place enabling laws to checkmate clandestine activities of scrap dealers in the state.
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The governor, while regretting that residents of the state had incurred huge economic losses owing to criminal activities of some of the scrap dealers, maintained that the state could not fold its arms and watch criminals cash out on the hard earnings of citizens.
He said: “There is no uncompleted building in this city that they have not stolen the wires, everything, they are now deroofing houses because they are looking for aluminum and they are not even paying taxes.
“I have told the revenue service, I don’t want you to go to the village markets and be taxing vegetable sellers, I have said it times without number.
“It is a big challenge to us because it is not showing the electorate that they have a government.”
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