The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has warned Kogi State government and nine other states including the Federal Capital Territory of an imminent telecommunications blackout over disputes arising from unusual taxes and levies demanded by the Kogi State Government.
Speaking with journalists in Lagos on Monday, ALTON’s Chairman, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, said the taxes by Kogi State Government through its ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources, Kogi State Environmental Protection Board, championed by the Kogi State Internal Revenue Service (KIRS) is over a billion Naira.
He stressed that a total communication blackout should be expected in the entire Kogi State, parts of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory and possible impact on service availability in some parts of the states bordering Kogi.
According to him, the states that will be affected are Nasarawa, Benue, Enugu, Anambra, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara and Niger states.
He stressed that about 160 of critical telecommunications sites belonging to ALTON members have been closed and sealed up by the Kogi State Government in an attempt to increase its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) collection.
“This action followed an ex-parte court order obtained by the KIRS over unsubstantiated allegations that our members are in default of tax payments to the state government (which is not the truth) and access to these critical telecom sites has been denied.
“As a result of these actions by the state government, our members are unable to refuel power generators in these sites, a situation which has led to outage of many sites including hub sites across parts of Kogi state.”
“Our members have settled all statutory levies and taxes due to the Kogi State Government and have taken necessary steps to comply with local laws that govern business activities within Kogi state,” he said.
Some of the levies are; annual Right of Way (ROW) renewal, social services contribution, employee economic development levy, mast site premises renewal and fire service yearly renewal.
He noted that the outage currently being experienced is already affecting the ability of ALTON members to provide uninterrupted service delivery to commercial banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other critical agencies of government.
He insisted that state governments were encouraged to explore other means of resolving tax-related disputes rather than sealing telecommunications sites.
He urged the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who is driving the Presidential Enable Business Council on Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria to prevail on the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello to reign in on the matter to prevent a total blackout in communications services in Kogi, FCT and other eight states.
