The Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business, Dr Jumoke Oduwole on Wednesday, disclosed that Multiplicity of taxations was crippling the survival of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across state levels.
This was even as she called on State governments to amend legislation that will enhance ease of doing business in their various states.
She stated this at a Subnational Technical workshop held in Abuja to discuss the ease of doing the business intervention.
While fielding questions from journalists on the sidelines of the event, Oduwole explained that businesses are taxed for singular purposes both at the Federal, State and Local levels which at the end of the day, results in a huge sum.
Her words: “I think one of the areas that have permeated across will be maybe multiple taxations and the cost of doing business. So, taxation, as I said, is one thing, but you have some businesses being taxed.
“It is not technically multiple taxations but the multiplicity of taxation. It is being taxed for the same thing but in this case, you are being taxed by the federal, state and local government and then you are being charged levels and then regulatory costs so the entirety of it comes to a tidy sum.”
In addition, she stressed the need for states to work on the bureaucratic bottlenecks and lack of transparency which is a menace that cuts across all sectors in the business environment.
“Another area is service delivery, speed of doing business and just removing bureaucratic bottlenecks is an important area that needs to be sorted,” she said.
The presidential aide further disclosed that the second report on the ease of doing business will be released in the second quarter of the year, adding that the report is to improve business environments for other states.
According to her, this will give insight as to what other states are doing in terms of reforms.
She added that the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) is working with the National Assembly on a bill on ease of doing business.
“We have our own bill coming up soon. And we’re urging states to do the same to look at their business environments and whatever legislations that are needed to amend and make those laws with their state Houses of Assembly.
“Now, we are having a second edition of the Ease of Doing Business Report that will be released in the second quarter of this year, hopefully by about April or May, before we get too deep into the political cycle. The idea is that states can use the information in the report to improve their business environments, and they can also know what other states are doing in terms of reforms,” she said.
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