Traders To Pay N3,000 Yearly As Tax In Anambra

Anambra State Government has said N3,000 a year Personal Income Tax (PIT) has been introduced pro-rata for all categories of traders in the markets across the state as a way of shoring up the state government’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
Hitherto, traders in the state shunned the payment of taxes even as taxes by civil servants in the state are deducted at source through the Pay As You Earn (P.A.Y.E.) system.
The state commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mr Robert Okonkwo who dropped this hint, said the state government had done an enumeration of all the market stalls in the state and had after meetings with market leaders agreed to dispense with revenue contractors who he noted had been short-changing it by under-declaring what they collected as revenue.
To this end, these market leaders, he said, had been mandated to be collecting the N1,800 a year stallage fees for a full shop, N900 for half a shop and N450 for a quarter shop, development levy per trader.
“Somebody is expected to pay 10 per cent of his income as tax. In the market it is impossible to know how much a person realises because there are no accurate data. We agreed to surcharge a flat fee of N3,000 as tax.
“Totality of what is to be collected now is N6000 per trader. Only two years in arrears was considered. We agreed with the market executives after a joint meeting,” he said.
The state government he said would in rebuilding the Bridge Head market in Onitsha gutted by fire about a week ago and may relocate the market to another site thereafter.
He said that the state government was looking at 100 per cent increase in revenue from the markets from what it used to be before the revenue contractors were jettisoned.