The Managing Director (MD), Cross River State Tourism Bureau, Mr Ojoi Ekpenyong, has revealed plans to partner the State’s Internal Revenue Service and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that taxations in tourism sector is harmonised.
The MD in his remarks during the Cross River State Tourism Bureau’s Stakeholders meeting, pointed out that his first constituency is the private sector, stressing that if the private sector is doing well, the Bureau will do well.
According to him, to keep up to date with developments in the hospitality industry, the Bureau has equally taken measures to improve regulations to accommodate the rapid and continuous development.
“Tourism Bureau are regulators that ensure facilities in the sector are up to standard. We will go out of our ways to make sure that people sleep in your facilities but your facilities must be up to date, you are not going to offer anything you like in terms of service delivery.
“This meeting is one of the greatest thing that has happened to the tourism sector after so many years and the feedback I got here today is very exciting. I agree with the private sector that it is time to jumpstart our tourism initiative, thank God I have the support of His Excellency, the Governor, I expect that this is just the beginning, we will restore Cross River State.”
Addressing the issue of multi-taxation in the sector, he said: “His Excellency is not aware of any tax known as ‘Television tax and the rest of the names’, so we are definitely going to have another stakeholders meeting that will involve everybody who is collecting tax. I will call the IRS chairman and we will sit together and agree how to involve all stakeholders to harmonize, and I am sure all those taxes mentioned, when we bring it to the knowledge of His Excellency, they will be no more there,” he assured.
He added that to qualify for the ten million naira grant that the governor has allocated for the development of the state’s tourism industry, one must operate a hotel in Cross River according to the rules and guidelines of tourism licensing regime, emphasizing that the money is not for the big players in the sector but for hotels that are struggling to survive.
Also speaking, the Chairman of Cross River State Hoteliers Association, Mr Charles Ogar commended the MD for securing funds to improve the sector within a short period of time and warned Hoteliers to jettison the dichotomy of regulators and practitioners because they can’t be regulators without practitioners.
On his part, one of the Stakeholders, the Chief Executive Officer of Murphy’s Apartments, Chief Ray Murphy commended the state government for its responsiveness in recognizing the need to give confident to hotel operators in the state.
“As you can see today the mood in this stakeholders meeting is very good not because the amount is too high but it is to show that government is really committed to returning tourism to Cross River.
“As an old stakeholders, I would say that this is the first time since civilian government came back in 1999, the last we had a boost like this was during the military regime when we were about to host international football tournament and money was released by government to raise hotels up, so we commend the governor and we think that it is a step in the right direction. The stakeholders are very concern that these will continue and they have given their commitment that they’re willing to give their best, he added.
Highlight of the event was the formation of committee for the administration of grant which headed the Managing Director of Cross River State Tourism Bureau and and three other Hoteliers as members of the committee.
Highlight of the meeting was the formation of committee for the administration of grant, headed by the Managing Director of the Cross River State Tourism Office and three other hoteliers as committee members.
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