Mr Chijioke Chukwu, the Deputy Minority Leader of Abia House of Assembly, has advised the state government to address the problem of multiple taxation of small scale businesses in the state.

Chukwu, who spoke to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Umuahia on Tuesday, decried the extortion of small scale traders by touts in the guise of revenue collection in the state.

The lawmaker representing Bende North state constituency and member of the All Progressive Congress (APC), said that such problem would not allow small scale enterprises to thrive.

He said that there were many avenues of financial leakages in the state that needed to be blocked.

Chukwu said, “The major challenge is that those that are in the tax net are either under taxed or evade tax because of their contacts with ‘powers that be’.

“I am advocating tax exemptions for those small scale traders whose annual turnovers are very insignificant so that they will be able to grow their businesses.

“We need to do proper enumeration of the number of small scale factories in Aba and make a projection of their annual revenue. Those of them that are running on very small turnover should be exempted.

“We need to bring those that are evading tax into the proper tax net and we should not burden the small scale businesses with multiple taxes because it is killing their ingenuity and creativity.”

According to him, Abia is among the state that cannot survive without Federal allocation because it does not have big companies that can generate revenues to run the government.

“We have not taken advantage of our God-given gifts. God has given us arable land and solid minerals.

“Are we exploiting them optimally? Are we taking advantage of our comparative advantage in palm and cocoa productions?’’ he queried.

He said that Aba as the commercial nerve centre of the state must be gotten right first in order to boost the internally generated revenue of the state.

He commended Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu for his efforts in repositioning the state and urged all to join hands with him in moving the state forward.

Chukwu lauded the 7th Assembly under the leadership of Chinedum Orji as Speaker, adding that it was collaborating with the governor especially in its oversight function that enhanced progress of the state. (Nan)