BY SUNNY A. DAVID
The Anambra State Joint Transport Forum has rejected the setting up of a new revenue enforcement team known as Unified High Breed Enforcement Team (UHBET) describing its members as re baptized set of touts who have been ripping off transporters in the past.
The Unified High Breed Enforcement Team UHBET was set up and inaugurated by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, Air Vice Marshall Chiobi and Acting Chairman Anambra Internal Revenue Services Dr Greg Ezeilo collect taxes from transporters.
Aising from a meeting, the transporters in a resolution singed by its Executive Leaders led by Innocent Obogha said that the new out fit are made up of members of the Ocha Brigade team and the Anambra Joint Enforcement Team ANJET that had been ripping off and extorting money from them before now.
In the resolution by the transporters and copy to the Directorate of State Services DSS and the Police Command the body stated;
“We the members of this organization wish to state clearly that we are in support of the Governor Charles Soludo drive towards ensuring accountability in the digital payment of taxes and levies to the government account.
“That we shall continue to comply with the respective payments but we reject in it’s totally the newly inaugurated Unified High Breed Enforcement Team UHBET set up by the Special Adviser to Soludo on Security and the Chairman Anambra Internal Revenue Services due to the following reasons.
“That the formation of the new team is a re-baptized body that was made up of the Ocha Brigade and Anambra Joint Enforcement Team ANJET that have been ripping off our members in the name of revenue collection.
“We have reported cases of our members who despite the fact that they have paid their taxes to government coffers they still force them to pay bribe of between N100,000.00 to N30,000.00 and sometimes they are arrested and forced into Black Maria truck and detained for days.
“To this end we appeal to Governor Charles Soludo to allow us collect these revenues by sending POS Agents that we shall pay the money through them to government in order to ensure accountability.
“Similarly we have resolved to resist any attempt by the new revenue enforcement team to collect taxes from our members because they are neither accounted for nor well documented and government has lost billions of naira to the so called revenue enforcement team.
“All members of this organization are hereby directed that no member should have any kind of dealings with the new body in the area of payment of taxes of any kind until government provides us with the POS Agents and operatives for us to pay direct to government coffers,” the resolution stated.
