The review meeting of the Rivers Tax Justice and governance platform held at Support Initiative for Sustainable Development (SISDEV) office in Port Harcourt on the 20th of December 2022. It was aimed at evaluating and reviewing activities carried by the group in 2022 and strategizing for 2023 in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the group.
The meeting started with introduction of the different organizations and every organization were asked to state what they have done in the area of tax and justice. CHHELD Executive Director, Dandyson Harry Dandyson stated that CHHELD is currently Partnering with Centre for Creative Development Strategies in developing a concept to address taxation problems in Rivers State and is currently carrying out activities on tax justice and policies.
The leader of the platform, Mr. Amaechi Kelechi Justin mentioned that the annual tax platform is used to advocate/intervene on issues related to tax in the country, it involves the private and government sectors coming together to brainstorm how they can work together. Mr. Amaechi also mentioned that tax expenditure is like tax holidays, tax exemption. It can defined as tax losses by government. It is those losses that are legal and backed by the law to boost the economy of certain industries. Instead of paying the tax to government they used it to deliver certain amenities in the communities vis avis the state and Nigeria at Large.
Mr. Amaechi Kelechi Justin urged members to focus on various thematic areas of the group and seeks ways to solve taxation problems, such as rights abuse and civil space repression, resolving of multiple taxation, simplification of tax code, percentage off tax for women and people with disability. He admonished member organizations to come up with concepts and plans to address some challenges with taxation in the state and the group shall seek ways to fund a viable idea/proposal. He also mentioned that there shall be capacity building for member organizations.
