Hotel owners in Kwara state have appealed to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq to save hotel business in the state from total collapse.
In a Save Our Soul message to the governor, the hoteliers lamented that the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS) Revenue Taskforce had subjected their businesses to “harassment, coercion, intimidation, extortion and unlawful locking up of hotels without a court order”.
In a statement jointly signed by the President and General Secretary of the association; Alhaji Dauda Akande and Babatunde Oladunmoye respectively, the association decried the lack of synergy between KWIRS and the MDAs that are responsible for fixing and negotiating taxes and levies, which they said has resulted in the issuance of “crazy bills” to members as demand notices.
While lamenting the inability of members of the association to pay outrageous bills under the current economic situation in the country, the association disclosed that currently, members pay over 20 taxes and levies to federal, state, and local governments.
The statement further reads, “Overregulation and multiplicity of taxes is currently a huge disincentive to investments in Kwara state hospitality and tourism industry.
“KWIRS has been making use of the police to harass, intimidate, arrest, detain, and charge our members with criminal acts through lies and conspiracies for matters that are purely civil matters of taxation.
“Our members are being served inaccurate demand notices that include purported bills dating back to the Covid-19 era when all hotels were shut down because of the pandemic as backlogs.
“The collapse of the hotel business in Kwara State will result in job losses and an increase in crime rates.
“We are earnestly requesting the following to ameliorate the current challenges of the hotel business in Kwara state.”
They appealed to the governor to, among other things, stop the agencies from sealing hotels without a court order since they cannot be the judge in their case.
“They should follow due process in all tax matters,” the statement appealed, while also asking the government to allow business associations to pay taxes and levies from their members directly to government revenue accounts to prevent extortion and diversion of percentages of the taxes and levies to private pockets through collusion and conspiracies.
“The association is pleading with the Governor to adequately fund agencies established for social services like KWEPA and Fire Services and should not be converted to revenue-generating agencies with yearly revenue targets,” it said.
