By Aaron Ukodie
The Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), the umbrella body of all telecom services providers in Nigeria has pleaded for the intervention of the Minister of Communication, Dr Isa Pantami so as to save the industry from its adverse multiple challenges.
ALTON made the request through a letter it sent to the minister on August 26, 2019. The letter was signed by the chairman of the Association, Gbenga Adenayo.
In the letter, ALTON listed the areas which it wants the minister to intervene to include the Amended Taxes & Levies Order, 2015 which engenders the institution of multiplicity of taxes across different tiers of Government as it failed to fix the taxable rate resulting in the imposition of arbitrary levies and charges at the State Government levels.
The industry is also burdened with enactment of laws at the State Government levels to legitimate spurious levies and charges on our members which negates the ease of doing business in Nigeria.
Specifically, ALTON stated item 3 (b) of the Amended Schedule to the Taxes and Levies (Approved List for Collection) Act introduced new levies and taxes under items 12 – 25 and that most of these taxes and levies were hitherto contested by our members on the grounds that they were not applicable to telecommunications operations justified by the previous Taxes and Levies (Approved List for Collection) Act 1998.
The Association said it is disturbing that the entire instrument has given the State Governments authorization to coerce and disrupt the operations of telecom operators in order to compel the payment of sundry levies, charges and taxes. Rather than Amended Order addressing the issue of multiple taxation; it on the contrary increased the tax burden of our members and adversely impacted the ease of doing businesses in Nigeria.
ALTON also drew the attention of Pantami to record incidences of sabotage, outright vandalisation and arbitrary site closure in across the Federation intended to coerce and exert pressure to compel the payment of multiple and discriminatory taxes and levies targeted at telecom facilities for the purpose of revenue generation.
Some examples of these taxes are, which the ALTON told the minister, that are being imposed on its members are the Ecology Tax for gaseous emission, Sewage, Sanitation and public convenience levy, Sanitation and refuse effluent tax, and Business premises tax for base stations situated in farm lands.
Others include tenements rates charged per base station in some states is far higher than rates per square metre charged by the same State for residential and commercial buildings when the infrastructure occupies the same land, and fumigation Levies
ALTON reminded the minister that telecoms services as critical national security and economic infrastructure supports many other economic sectors of the economy, and is also the first layer of critical infrastructure for socio economic development and security and that unless telecoms facilities have first level of protection by Government, it will be difficult to provide uninterrupted services to the citizenry.
ALTON reiterated its age-long call for an Executive Order to be issued designating “Telecom Infrastructure as Critical National Security and Economic Infrastructure” as prescribed in the Cybercrime Act, 2015.
ALTON stated that access to basic communications services have transformed personal and business productivity, enhanced governance and facilitated security services delivery in the country and has direct impact on the performance of Government at all levels.
The ICT Sector, the Associations noted accounts for approximately 10% of nominal GDP as against 2016 with a direct contribution of over N1.549trn to the economy and it consistently accounted for over 30% of Nigerian Foreign Direct Investment since its deregulation in year 2001. It is pertinent to state that the ICT Sector has created over 20,000 direct and 1.5 million indirect jobs since its deregulation in 2001.
The Association said despite the above milestones, it is of great concern to stakeholders that the ICT Sector is still operating below its potentials, as it is faced with fundamental challenges militating against network enhancement and development as well as inadequate infrastructure to support broadband roll out.
Specifically, ALTON said the provision of first class telecoms service in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja has been hampered by the refusal of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to grant permits to its members to build infrastructure, and that despite concerted engagement, FCDA has maintained that due to the need to maintain the Abuja Master Plan, it will not grant approval to our members to build new sites in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
ALTON informed the minister that without adequate infrastructure, the provision of qualitative telecommunications services cannot be guaranteed, while pleading with him to use your good office to liaise with the FCDA to identify suitable locations for new sites build by our members to ensure the provision of qualitative telecoms service in FCT and environs.
It also said telecom companies require more base stations, more resilient infrastructure and other elements to support stable telecom operations. However, we are faced with a number of issues for which we require intervention of Government at the highest level
