By Abdullahi Alhassan, Kaduna
As a part of the strategies to generate income to finance its budget, the Kaduna State government through Kaduna State Urban Planning and Development Authority (KASUPDA) is targeting a minimum of N70 million from mobile adverts permit tax in 2023.
The mobile adverts permit rate or tax is levied on any mobile object that bears adverts as small as the size of A-4 paper and the amount payable varies from N15,000 per truck/trailer (the highest) to N500 per wheel barrow (the lowest) to cover January to December.
N54.440 million is expected to be realised within the state while N11.560 million is expected from motorists passing through the state.
Kaduna State Tax (codification and consolidation) Law 2022 No. 8 of 2020 has mandated KASUPDA to collect mobile adverts levy.
To get the job done seamlessly, KASUPDA is working in collaboration with Kaduna State Traffic Law Enforcement Agency (KASTLEA) and a service provider company called Laminde and Son Global Resources to issue mobile adverts certificates, enforce the payment and collect the payment on behalf of the state government.
Speaking during a one-day 2023 mobile adverts operations stakeholders dialogue in Kaduna Director General (DG) of KASUPDA, Ismail Umar Dikko who was represented by Director, Monitoring and Compliance in the agency, Architect. Caleb Moses Gaiya said, the dialogue became necessary to dot the 'i's and cross the 't's to ensure smooth operation in the coming year.
Technical Assistant to the DG who facilitated the meeting, Umar Ismail noted that the KASUPDA is doing a lot to digitize its operations as one of the strategies on ease of doing business in the state instead of going through the rudiment of multiple papers which are cumbersome and time consuming.
Taking the participants at the meeting through the 2023 mobile adverts tax outlook, representative of the Laminde and Son Global Resources, Olabode Adekoya lamented that despite the increment in the number of people of the resident in the state, the taxes have been stagnant.
Adekoya also decried lack of proper record of companies liable for the collection of adverts like mobile adverts quickly added that his organisation is working on the creation of computerised database of all companies liable for the collection of the various taxes.