It was a sunny afternoon last Thursday when Nneka was attending to her clients as usual and she suddenly heard loud voices outside her restaurant, apparently there was an argument.
The restaurant is located inside Gwarinpa Estate, Abuja.
She found out that the argument was between a member of her staff and task force officials from the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).
Advertisement
The employee had gone to put on the genset after a power outage when the task force members, who appeared to have been hanging around the building, suddenly stormed the compound to demand N300,000 for “gaseous emission permit”.
This reporter, who happened to be at Dolphin Restaurant located along 2nd Avenue when the officials walked in, witnessed the exchange between the owner of the eatery and the officials – two males and a female.
Nneka asked that the officials be ushered into the restaurant and demanded to know what the noise was about.
“You’re required to pay N300,000 for using a generator ma,” said one of the officials who wore a green vest typically worn by task forces.
“So, I’m not allowed to use Generator?” Nneka asked, adding “Did you give me power and I chose to use generator? Are you people not ashamed that a business powers itself [with generator] and then you’re telling me to pay N300,000? Who does that? Because you just saw this place spring up and then you’re telling me to pay N300,000?”
Nneka had opened the restaurant about one month ago and the business had barely found its footing when it received a notice to pay N300,000 for using a generator.
She told THE WHISTLER that the building housing the restaurant was in “shambles” and had not been in use for about 15 years until she spent “tens of millions” to rent, renovate and put the place in order.
Protesting the levy, she told the officials that she was “using generator by compulsion” because “the government forced me to use it” as power supply was inconsistent.
The officials subsequently stormed out of the restaurant wearing angry looks.
The restaurateur said she was ready to “meet them in court”. Earlier that day, a different group of persons claiming to be task force from AMAC had visited the restaurant to demand N100,000 for “operational permit”.
She decried that despite being an employer of labour and “helping the economy”, the government was discouraging business owners through incessant and outrageous bills.
“When they started this thing, I was biased at first, but at one point I went to their office, looked for their revenue director and sat down with him. I told him I don’t know what I’m supposed to pay and what not to pay.
“He asked me to go and buy the gazette. I bought It and checked all the levies I’m supposed to pay, because this task force members are contractors to AMAC” she said, adding that, “…because whatever I’m supposed to pay, the task force gives me three times the bill and put a personal account number and phone number.
“I’m going to check that gaseous emissions [levy in the gazette] and if I want to pay, I will pay for what the government demands and not to task force.”
The restauranteur said she has had similar encounters with AMAC officials attempting to fleece business owners.
“Even when I ran the restaurant with my mom, it is the same story. The only difference is that the pressure and frustration are not as this. This thing became worse in the past two to three years. They are just coming up with all manner of levies,” she said.
While setting up this particular restaurant, Nneka said she ensured that she settled major bills required of her to commence operation, including levies for floating a signpost and staff medical test at a designated laboratory, amongst others.
A customer who was present when the task force arrived said he also had to part with N89,000 on the morning of that day to settle one of the endless levies being demanded by the task force at a business premises.
Meanwhile, contrary to the N300,000 being demanded by the task force, THE WHISTLER gathered that the original levy imposed on businesses using heavy-duty generators by the AMAC management is N100,000.
Businesses affected include industries, filling stations, warehouses and banks who use generators or heavy-duty drilling, production, construction and manufacturing equipment, amongst others.
AMAC’s Head of Environment/Director of Public Health, Ahmed Haruna, had in a recent notice to businesses operating within the area council said the levy was for “Gaseous Emission Permit Limit,” including “discharge of harmful hazardous substance into the air or the land and the water”
The notice claimed that the move was “…in line with the provision of Section (2C) of the fourth schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended under the function of the Local Government Authority and Federal Environmental Protection Agency Act part (iii) section 25 which establish the Local Council Authority to regulate, enforce and collection of levies for the interest of public health importance (welfare) section (18), (20), (21), (26) and 27 and other relevant laws of National Environmental Health Practice Regulation 2016 which confers on the council the power to regulate, inspect, control and collection of levies/fees.”
Haruna had said, “failure to comply with this forgoing regulation is punishable offence and we will seize the activities of the organization and arrest as prescribe in part IV Section 27 Subsection 1 abcd and (2) of FEPA ACT 1992”.
The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry had decried the N100,000 actual levy as outrageous and warned that businesses could collapse if forced to pay the levy.
“Imposition of new taxes like the generator and equipment taxes will not only be an additional burden to be borne by business owners, it will accelerate the collapse of more businesses, deepen unemployment and further hike inflation rate in the country,” president of the chamber, Al-Mujtaba Abubakar, had said in a statement, adding that, “This is clearly not in the best interest of the government and people of the country.”
INTERVIEW: ‘Government Has Failed Me As A Legitimate Business Owner’
THE WHISTLER sat down with Nneka for an interview a day after her confrontation with the task force members, during which she accused the government of doing “nothing” to encourage business owners, yet wants to cripple their businesses through endless levies.
CAN YOU TELL US WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY?
“Yesterday (Thursday) while I was in my restaurant in Gwarinpa, two men and a lady walked in and my people introduced them that they are from AMAC. You know AMAC has several things that they do, so that particular set [of task force members] were for gaseous emission or environment unit. I wasn’t patient enough because I wasn’t happy with what they were saying. They said they came to follow up on the notice they served. And actually, they served me a notice some two weeks ago that I should pay N300,000 for using a generator and this place is barely one month. So, I just was angry and I walked them out.”
ARE YOU OWING TAX OR OTHER LEVIES?
“Well, I wouldn’t say that I am owing because this is my second restaurant. In January, at the second restaurant, I started planning towards payment of their taxes before the end of the year, including business premises, food handlers’ permit, health permit, environmental and our outdoor service permit. These are the few ones that I know that I pay.”
WE UNDERSTAND THE TASK FORCE GOES AROUND HARASSING BUSINESS OWNERS, HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED SUCH AT YOUR OTHER RESTAURANT?
“Yes, they do that. I’m a witness, they’ve done that to me a couple of times and I had to stand up to them because as far as I know, as a Nigerian, there’s nothing the government is doing for us. I’m not even asking them to do anything for us, because we are strong people.
“I’m asking them to just let us do business, let us thrive and help them to remove crime from the society by employing idle people to come work with us.”
WERE YOU TOLD SPECIFICALLY WHAT THE N300,000 LEVY WOULD BE USED FOR OR WHY IT WAS INCREASED?
“No, just because I’m using generator. I’m not sure if they measure it by the size of the generator or size of building. I don’t even know why I’m supposed to pay that big amount of money. Nobody has even come to explain to me that madam, you just opened this place, we understand, see what the law says you should do. And of course, I should ask them why didn’t the law provide me with light? Because if I have light, [I won’t put on the generator]. You came here now, there is light and did I choose to power my business with generator.
“If I chose generator when there is power, then tax me. But if you make us choose to use generator, then you have to help us.
“…the notice did not indicate that because my generator is 10kva, then 10kva attracts this amount.
“…this is August, we are going into September, the year is almost running out. I would have even expected them to tell me that from next year, this is what you would be expected to pay. A lot is expected from the government and they have failed me as a legitimate business owner. Because other people are into crime, doing all sorts of funny things and we have chosen to not to. We have also chosen to call other people, employ them and pay them salary for them to also make something meaningful out of their lives.”
WHAT IS YOUR STAFF STRENGHT?
“Just here, we have eight people but my overall staff is about 42.”
WHAT OTHER FRUSTRATIONS DO BUSINESS OWNERS LIKE YOU FACE?
“A lot. In the area of staffing, we are discovering that people don’t want to work again because it is as if social media is portraying that dubious ways to make money are easier. So, the youths are like if I can just see somebody throwing tens of millions around, that means hard work doesn’t pay anymore. So, I feel that the educational system has gotten it wrong. We are trained to administrate and not to produce.
HOW CAN GOVERNMENT HELP STRIVING BUSINESSES?
“First of all, I will appeal to them to give us light. If Ghana can have light…I’ve been to Ghana, it’s a small country, I’ve even been to the villages. So, if Ghana can have light, at least Nigeria’s capital territory should be able to have 24 hours of power supply.
“I will also appeal to them to more of educate business owners, because on this journey, I’ve invited multiple times to come and talk about multiple taxation on Nigerian businesses. So, on this journey, I’ve encountered people who don’t even know what they should pay. This people (tax force) just round and harass them. So, something that they should pay N200,000, the tax force tells you to pay N700,000 and by the time you start beating [the price down], the N200,000 they would remit to AMAC would be there and their own share would be included.
“Nobody is saying don’t do tax force, but let there be rules, let it not be that it is being bargained like we are pricing pepper. And I also tell business owners to buy the gazette, they sell it for N3,000 at Area 10. I have it, so that I will know what my right is, I will know when somebody is trying to take opportunity of the fact that I don’t have enough knowledge. So, I’ll appeal to them to educate us and give us light because these things would help us to thrive.
“You can imagine when COVID-19 happened, what happened to the economy? But today, we all are freely moving about and things are getting back into shape. I’d also appeal to them, probably they can do something about the high cost of food stuff in the market. Because as I’m a business owner now, I go to the market, buy one mudu of garri for N1,000 and tomorrow it is N2,000…. will I now tell my customers that I’m increasing my price every day? It would show inconsistency in what I’m doing.”
Excellent job
This is outrageous, if I may ask will the Government share the money to people around there that inhale the smoke from the Generator. Or are they providing free health care to the inhabitants of the Area.