Delta mulls implementation of property protection law, check double taxation

The Delta State Government has expressed its resolve to fully implement the Public and Private Property Protection Law enacted by the state House of Assembly recently to resolve conflicts arising from double taxation and other irregularities.

The bill, also known as ‘Anti-deve’ law, had proscribed forceful entry into development sites, illegal collection of development levies and extortion by thugs, to pave way for accelerated development in the state.

A statement by the Public Relations Officer, Ministry of Justice, Ivovi Aruoriwo, stated that the state Attorney-General (AG) and Commissioner for Justice, Peter Mrakpor, had during a meeting with petroleum depot operators in the state assured property developers and investors of the implementation of the law that prohibits forceful entry and collection of development levies by touts, saying that offenders will be prosecuted.

The AG, who was accompanied by the Executive Assistant to the Governor on Community Development, Innocent Esewezie, told the tank farm owners that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s administration was not resting on its oars in providing a business-friendly environment for investors to operate.

  He stressed the need for the oil depot owners to have a bogus Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) agenda for its host-communities as part of their contributions to support government in providing social amenities to the people.

The Justice Commissioner also advised the operators of the petroleum depots to comply with the local content act by providing skilled and unskilled employment for youths in their area of operation even as he called on them to take government along when carrying out their CSR to their host-communities.

  Mrakpor, while responding to complaints from the operators on the need for government to harmonise revenue bills sent to them on environmental fees, tenement rates, business premises registration and renewal, fire certificates, waste disposal and treatment plant permit, promised to consider their observations while undertaking the amendment of the revenue laws of the state.

The oil depot operators had appealed to the Attorney-General to resolve the conflict arising from double taxation by various agencies of government.

They said their companies received bills from Ministry of Environment and its agencies; Delta State Environmental Protection Agency and Waste Management Board, Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industries, as well as from the local councils.

While assuring them that government will look at their demands, the Delta AG warned the petroleum depot operators not to pay revenue into any other account other than dedicated government revenue accounts through the Board of Internal Revenue.