BUSINESS DAY
The number of taxes and levies telecom operators in Nigeria are forced to pay to federal, state and local government agencies has increased to 52 from 41, according to Gbenga Adebayo, president of the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON).
Adebayo, who was speaking at a closed-door stakeholders’ meeting on Thursday, also disclosed that banks were yet to pay the USSD debt owed to telecom operators, which has now risen to N200 billion from N120 billion in June.
Multiple taxation is seen as one of the primary bottlenecks affecting the profitability of telecommunications business in Nigeria, and efforts by operators to draw the government’s attention to it have yielded little or no results.
In a recent communique to the Senate Committee on Telecommunications, Tony Izuagbe, president of the Association of Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria, also made similar submissions, urging the committee to quickly address these issues to avoid revenue losses in the industry. According to him, the multiple taxation is often a result of multiple regulations.
