Austerity measures meant for the poor, says NLC

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has stated that in spite of the introduction of austerity measures by the Federal Government, the rich have continued to evade tax and wallow in affluence, while the poor are hard hit with the challenges of eating three square meals on daily basis.

NLC’s General Secretary, Comrade Peter Ozo-Eson, made the declaration in Lagos while interacting with newsmen on how  a great percentage of the affluent and the propertied class in the country do not pay tax.

He said: “Most of the very rich people in the country are not paying tax; there must be a scheme to get them to pay adequate tax.

“We are worried that most of the luxury goods are consumed by the rich, and goods in this category include private jets that are in our airports today,’’ he added

The labour leader who argued that the country could survive the current economic depression occasioned by the fall in oil prices with effective taxation of luxury goods being consumed by the rich, however  appealed to the government to shun all attempts to transfer the burden of the economic crisis to the workers.

“Nigeria is a country that is so rich and yet there is serious poverty that we are talking about”, he said.

“If we tax private jets and other frivolous forms of consumption in a very high rate that will be a welcome development because those who consume such commodity should be taxed and taxed heavily,’’ Ozo-Eson said.

Ozo-Eson noted that the starting point of the austerity measures should be a cut in the cost of governance to check waste, adding that government could efficiently function with leaner expenditure pattern.

Source: dailyindependent