Private hospitals in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have expressed displeasure over the multiple taxation imposed on its members by the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).
Professor Olufemi Emmanuel Babalola, President, Guild of Medical Directors (GMC) in a statement on Tuesday, said private hospitals were still suffering from the economic woes wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic and were now under ‘siege’ from AMAC.
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GMC is a body of owners of private hospitals in the country.
“The area council has recently unleashed its officials and agents to harass hospital owners for exorbitant and frankly ridiculous multiple taxes/levies for things such as tenement rates, fumigation licence, TV/Radio licence and other bogus charges.
“We are witnessing a desperate effort to collect money in a way we have never seen before.
“How can a hospital be asked to pay a bill of over N500,000 for TV/Radio licence and N100,000 for fumigation? We have only started reopening after the problems related to the coronavirus and this is the time the council decided to reward private hospitals with extortion.
“They have complete disregard for the issues being faced at this critical time. The amounts of money being demanded from hospitals in this current economic realities will definitely force many to close or pass on the money to patients,” Professor Babalola said in the statement.
The guild said several meetings and decisions about the multiple taxation have not yielded any results thus far.
“The Guild of Medical Directors (GMD) wrote a formal letter to the AMAC chairman in 2019, intimating him that issues to do with taxation were still under consideration.
“The Honorable Minister of Health had actually set up a committee to review this: yet the council sent its thugs and even police officers to harass hospital staff and patients,” the guild added in the statement.
While saying that majority of the private hospitals in the FCT serve the citizens in the suburbs where there is limited access to healthcare, the private hospitals owners added that the public should note that the situation would affect the cost of care in Abuja and make healthcare unaffordable for many.
A special adviser to AMAC chairman, Abuodun Essiet, said the council gave 50 per cent tax relief to business owners including private hospitals.
She said the tax relief also included tenement but added that it shall lapse by September.
