According to Dr. Magdalene Ajani, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Transportation, the Federal Government is finalising plans to eliminate multiple taxes in the transportation sector in order to reduce the cost of doing business in the country.
On Wednesday, Ajani made the announcement at the National Transportation Technology Conference and Exhibition (NTTCE), a two-day conference and exhibition in Lagos.
The theme of the conference, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), is: Intergovernmental cooperation between federal and sub-national governments in seamless policy, regulation, and tax regimes: The role of the natural gas expansion programme.
Ajani stated that streamlining the various taxation in the sector was necessary to boost growth and development.
She claimed that multiple taxation was detrimental to business development and sustainability.
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According to the permanent secretary, one of the issues affecting the sector is unregulated taxation, which has impacted the cost of doing business in the country.
She stated that the law governing the country’s transportation sector accommodated the roles of the federal, state, and local governments.
Ajani stated that the type of segment to cover, such as motor parks and licences for both divers and vehicles, was left up to a specific level of government.
“What we discover is that multiple road stickers are being sold to road users by different groups of people.”
” As a result, this tends to raise the cost of doing business in road transportation and must be regulated.”
“Those claiming that the Federal Ministry of Transportation gave them permission to collect money on its behalf are incorrect,” Ajani said.
Dr Frederic Oladeinde, the Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, also spoke and praised the Federal Government’s efforts to address multiple taxation issues in the sector.
According to Oladeinde, the development will benefit state governments’ transportation policies.
He stated that technology was the way forward in driving the sector to become more efficient and effective.
“We have deployed a lot of technology in Lagos; we’re talking about the Cowry cards to integrate the mode of transportation.”
“We’re looking into integrating the mode of transportation’s timetable to reduce waiting time,” he said.
The Lagos State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Corp Commander Olusegun Ogungbemide, stated that the corps has been using technology to improve its mode of operation.
He stated that technology had aided in reducing response time to crash scenes and electronic ticketing in the issuance of traffic tickets.
Ogungbemide stated that the corps would continue to ensure that our roads are safe and free of accidents.
Mrs Chinwe Uwaegbute, Secretary of the Nigeria Transportation Commissioners’ Forum, stated that the conference brought together all of the key stakeholders in the transportation sector to develop policy to propel the industry forward.
“The conference raised many issues, such as the challenges of double taxation, the need for interconnectivity for all modes of transportation for ease of doing business,” she said.
“The outcome of this conference will chart a course for better growth and development of this sector.”
“The Federal Ministry of Transportation is also participating in this conference, and we hope that the points raised here will be used to generate policies that will aid growth in the sector.”
