The Chairman of the Cross River Internal Revenue Service (CRIRS), Prince Edwin Okon, has said the new tax law being implemented by government is aimed at harmonising taxes, reducing multiple levies, and easing the burden on traders and businesses, especially those in the informal sector.
Okon stated this in Calabar in on Tuesday during a one-day sensitisation programme on the New Tax Law for the Southern Senatorial District, held at Event 45.
The programme targeted tax consultants, accountants, tax practitioners, and business owners, and marked the final phase of a three-part sensitisation exercise across the three senatorial districts of Cross River State.
The CRIRS chairman explained that the government had introduced a presumptive tax system to cater for small-scale traders and artisans whose actual income is difficult to determine, particularly those operating in markets and other informal settings.
“We cannot accurately establish how much some of these traders earn in a year. That is why government is proposing a flat, affordable amount, for example ₦2,000 monthly or about ₦20,000 annually, instead of multiple collections,” he said.
Okon noted that tax implementation, rather than policy formulation, has often been the major challenge, but expressed confidence in ongoing reforms being driven at the national level. He said the harmonisation of taxes is a constitutional matter and stressed that government must avoid arbitrary and informal levies imposed through unions or road collections.
He also condemned tax evasion by wealthy individuals, insisting that no one would be granted a tax clearance certificate without fulfilling their obligations.
“My fight today is on big men who have not paid tax for years but suddenly need tax clearance for appointments. I will not sign until the correct taxes are paid, and payments must go directly into government accounts,” he said.
According to him, the Cross River State Government has never interfered in the operations of the service by asking him to waive taxes for any individual, a development he described as commendable.
On road and transport-related levies, Okon said the new tax framework would eliminate multiple ticketing and sticker collections across states. He disclosed that a Joint Tax Board (JTB) arrangement was being formalised to introduce a “point of loading and point of discharge” system.
Under the proposed arrangement, he explained that transporters would pay a single ticket at the point of loading, which would cover their movement to the destination state, with the revenue shared among the states and relevant local governments involved.
“For instance, if you load goods in Cross River and you’re travelling to Kano, once you pay at the point of loading, you are not supposed to pay again until you reach your destination,” he said.
Okon urged stakeholders to be patient with the reforms, noting that the system would not be perfect at inception but would improve over time.
The CRIRS chairman further disclosed that the federal government is working to harmonise and consolidate taxes nationwide, reducing them to about nine major taxes across federal, state, and local government levels.
He said the Joint Revenue Board, comprising chairmen of revenue services from the 36 states and the FCT, alongside agencies such as the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Customs, Immigration, and the Federal Road Safety Corps, would approve key aspects of the new framework at an upcoming board meeting.
The event was attended by the Accountant-General of Cross River State and other key stakeholders, who were urged to engage openly, ask questions, and contribute to refining the new tax system for better compliance and transparency.
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