" ITREALMS: Senate to tackle multiple taxation

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Senate to tackle multiple taxation

Telecommunications operators in the country, would soon heave a sigh of relief as the Nigerian Senate has promised to look critically into multiple taxation on their operations.

This revelation was made during a facility visit of the Second National Operator (SNO), Globacom Limited by members of the Senate Committee on Communications, last Saturday.

The committee led by its chairman. Senator Sylvester Anyanwu also promised to intervene in some other key issues necessary for the smooth operation in the industry.

Reacting to a presentation by Globacom at its corporate headquarters of the during the visit, Anyanwu, while commending Globacom assured of the upper house support in providing conducive environment for operators to conduct their businesses.

While receiving the Senate Committee on Communications, Glo made a presentation on its operations, milestones and challenges, noting among others, the challenge posed by multiple taxation as one of the major impediments to tariff reduction.

Chief Operating Officer, Globacom, Mr. Mohamed Jameel, had listed some of the problems confronting operators to include erratic power supply, vandalisation of existing infrastructure, security and lengthy processes at all levels of government.

A press statement from the telco quoted Jameel as outlining problems that emanate from backbone outage when the optic fibre cable is cut by third party contractors as well as the multiplicity of taxes from the various tiers of government.

Mr. Jameel told the visiting lawmakers that each tier of government requires separate, costly and cumbersome approval process for right of way (ROW) for the laying of optic fibre cables nationwide, adding that this has slowed down the pace of work on key projects designed to ease communication traffic in the country.

Responding, Senator Anyanwu pledge that the National Assembly would be willing to partner with the operators to look at the challenges and where necessary, fashion out legislation that would nip the problems in the bud.

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