Imo Hoteliers Send SOS To Ihedioha Over Multiple Taxation

OGBONNA IWUAGWU

Members of the Imo State Hoteliers Association have appealed to the Executive Governor of Imo State, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, to save the state’s hospitality industry from possible extinction following multiple taxation, double taxations and over taxation by some individuals, who claim to be government revenue consultants.

Chima Chukwunyere, Chairman of the association, noted with regret that a number of bad eggs, who masqueraded themselves as government revenue consultants in the departed Rochas Okorocha administration had penetrated the new Governor Ihedioha administration and appealed to the Governor to fish out these individuals and show them the way out in line with the spirit of his Rebuild Imo agenda.

Such erring government revenue agents, according to the hotel proprietors, more often than not, connive with some staff of the judiciary to secure kangaroo Court rulings against them on trumped-up charges and with prohibitive fines.

Chukwunyere, who briefed newsmen in Owerri, disclosed that N10,000 fine previously imposed on any hotel that defaults in controlling waste water from its premises from gushing out to pose a health hazard to the public, had since been hiked to N750,000 by these aggressive revenue consultants.

“Governor Ihedioha upon assumption of office promised us a clear departure from the ugly past of the Okorocha administration and we are calling on him to spare us from the hands of these hawks who do not mean well for our state.”

As the biggest industry and the largest employer of labour in the state after the state government, Chukwunyere warned that the unpatriotic activities of these consultants if left unchecked, would spell doom for the hospitality industry as some of the hotels would be forced to close business and their workers thrown into the already saturated labour market

According to him, rampant and indiscriminate sealing of hotels by these revenue consultants on frivolous allegations has now become the order of the day.

He noted that hotels in the state generate monthly heavy revenue for the government and advised that the government should not allow these so called revenue consultants to kill the geese that lay the golden eggs for it.