As an took its campaign for tax compliance to two popular Kaduna markets, traders gave reasons why the state government has not been getting reasonable revenue from the markets.

The state chapter of the platform recently launched the use of Theatre for Development in educating business owners and other citizens on the importance of tax payment.

The NGO took the drama sensitisation to Kawo and Kujama markets in Kaduna North and Chikun Local Government Areas, respectively, on Wednesday.

However, leaders of the traders at the markets who responded positively to the sensitisation, said they were ready to pay the required taxes.

The government is however currently not getting the required amount of revenue due to the demolition and reconstruction of the markets, which has become unaffordable to the majority of the traders.

Speaking on behalf of the traders, Chairman, Traders Association at the Kawo market, Alhaji Muhammad Idris, said the market demolition had crippled several businesses, as many wholesalers who were hitherto shop owners, have become petty traders, living from hand to mouth.

Mr Idris said, “The problem started from the market’s demolition. The government of the previous administration of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai came and persuaded us to allow them to demolish and rebuild the market. The then government promised that the shop owners would be given priority after the reconstruction of the market and that the market would be completed within eight months. It has been five years and the market has not been completed.

“Now, the completion of the market is not even the major challenge, the challenge is that most of the shop owners who had capital of N5 million and above, who were displaced by the demolition have lost their capital in the process and become petty traders.”

Mr Idris said that the state government had since taken a census of the old shop owners, adding, “But they have not been given the new shops free. The government is asking us to pay N5.5million for the big shop, and N2.5million for the small one.

“The truth of the matter is that we cannot afford the shops at those rates. We want the government of Senator Uba Sani to come to our rescue by subsidising the shops, so that traders can move in and start paying the required taxes,” he appealed.

Corroborating Mr Idris’ argument, Vice Chairman of the Traders Association, Alhaji Umar Sanda, said the market used to have over 3,000 shops with tax-paying traders.

He said, “They are now exposed to trading under the sun, rain and breeze and cannot generate the required revenue to the government.”

Earlier in his remarks, the Coordinator of the platform, Mr Simeon Olatunde, said it was working in collaboration with the state government to enable it generate enough internally generated revenue for the government to perform its social contract role.

He said the campaign to the markets was in realisation of the importance of tax payment, stressing that internally generated revenue is the most sustainable source of revenue generation.

Mr Olatunde said, “We are here in the market because we have realised that people are not used to voluntary tax payment particularly among the informal sector.”

He, therefore, said that the NGO discovered that the best way to reach the informal sector was through the marketplace, where both buyers and sellers come to do business on a daily basis.

He added, “We are reaching out to them to know their roles and obligations, as well as how to let them know how they can engage the government to deliver good governance to them.”

Mr Olatunde assured the traders that the state government had put in place mechanisms to ensure that taxes paid by the citizens were not embezzled, but channelled to deliver democracy dividends to them.

The sensitisation drama enlightened the citizens on the importance of tax payment to the delivery of social services such as education, healthcare, water and roads.

(NAN)