Online Tax Payment Can End Multiple Taxation on Farm Produce – Prof Adebisi

To end multiple taxations on farm produce, the Head of Department Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Abuja, Prof Oluwafemi Rufus Adebisi has called on governments at all levels to adopt the use of digital means.

According to Adebisi, the adoption of digital platforms in tax collection and payments would ensure transparency in the taxation of farm produce.

He stated that multiple taxations contribute to food inflation, increase poverty rate, reduce food security, affects food circulation, and incur losses for traders.

This comes after a rice farmer, the Chief Executive Officer of Igwe Ikemba Nigeria Limited, Igwe Ikemba, decried the multiple taxations of farm produce by task forces who claim to be officials of the Federal Produce Inspection Service (FPIS).

Narrating his ordeals to AgroNigeria, Ikemba said the task force block expressways in some states, and compel owners of the farm produce being transported or the drivers to pay exorbitant amounts as tax for the goods, even after payments have been made to their office.

He said, “Traders and farmers no longer have control over this as these produce officers stop vehicles on expressways, demanding between N50,000 and N100,000 for a full truck of rice even after traders must have paid necessary taxes to the office.

“When drivers or owners of the goods refuse to comply, they (task force) end up offloading about 20 bags of rice from the vehicle forcefully. If I am selling a bag of rice for 23,000, offloading 20 bags would incur a loss of about N630,000 for the trader or farmer.

“It’s quite disheartening as this has been a major setback in the transportation aspect of the business that would aid food circulation, and most times all these put together tend to affect the prices of food.”

Proffering a solution to the problem, Adebisi, who is also the Founder of Agroentic Innovation Club, told AgroNigeria that the government must put into effect necessary measures and policies to grow the agriculture sector.

“The issue of high taxation from the Nigeria Produce inspectors cannot be overemphasised. The government should adopt digitisation in tax administration, which would be a better means of payment. That way, the government would reduce the losses traders incur during transportation,” the professor said.

Furthermore, he said when providing interventions to farmers, the government should put measures in place to ensure that rural farmers gain access to such interventions, in a way that is void of corruption, and assign extension workers to get the accurate data of farmers in each ward and ensure that farmers make judicious use of such interventions.

The post Original Article first appeared on AgroNigeria.