Trying to make sense of the nonsense By Haruna Kwankwanso

This is a sponsored post.
I’m trying to make sense of the nonsense, which is how I view the proposed Communication Service Tax (CST) now being debated at the National Assembly.
Our federal legislators have in their wisdom concluded that the best way to give Nigerians the dividends of democracy is to impose another tax on the consumers and deplete their limited resources even further. We have heard some corporates complain of multiple taxation, particularly the telecom operators who claim being overtaxed by many arms of government. Now these legislators have flung their net wider to drag in subscribers as well into the quagmire. 

The Senate and House of Representatives are both reviewing this bill in parallel with the likely intention to quickly pass it into law. If they succeed in that plot, we will have to pay 9% more as CST. What this translates to is that if you use N15,000 in a month for voice calls, SMS, data service and so on, you will have to pay another N1,350 to your service provider for onward remittance to the government. Your bill of N15,000 thereby becomes N16,350. The fact that a subscriber is paying this tax on communication services does not exclude that subscriber from paying Value Added Tax on the same communication services. Subscribers now also have the challenge which only operators hitherto faced on multiple taxation, which is to pay a similar tax on the same service.

It is indeed sad though not surprising that our lawmakers are aiming to increase the burden of the people they pledged to serve. After all, their outrageous lifestyles are funded mostly from public funds.

It is however our collective responsibility to fight for our rights by ourselves. That is why various consumer rights groups and other bodies in the communication sector must come together to fight this ill thought out law.

The Nigerian consumer will bear the burden of this tax. VAT is bearable enough, but with another tax called CST, investors will see their Return on Investment (ROI) decrease and may have to review their future investment plans for Nigeria.

How do you scream for investors with the one side of your mouth and deter them with the sounds from the other side of the same mouth?

I’m still trying to make sense out of this nonsense.

 

Kwankwanso is a telecoms subscriber in Abuja