Maritime
Association Faults JTF’S Boat Registration ..Says Its Double Taxation
The President of the Seamen and Water Transport Workers Association (SWTWA) in Rivers State, Mr Horsfall Topman has said that the registration fee for vessels, barges and boats being demanded by the Joint Military Taskforce (JTF) through its operational code-name “Operation Pulo Shield” amounts to double taxation.
Mr Topman, who made this assertion in a chat with newsmen in Port Harcourt recently while reacting to the demand by the JTF said members of the association had been paying their annual registration to the federal government, and wondered why they should pay another registration fee.
According to him, members were not opposing the documentation of all boats, and vessels in the Niger Delta, but the fee attached to it, adding that JTF should concern itself with the security operations.
The President said,” we are not opposed to that, what we are asking is that, is the revenue going to the federal government or a tax made by the National Assembly through the JTF?. He argued that such registration fee is illegal and amounts to double taxation.
He noted that the National Inland Waterways, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) or the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) are the authorised organisations that could collect or demand registration fee for boats, and vessels.
Meanwhile, the announcement by the JTF over the registration of boats, vessels, barges and motorised boats in the Niger Delta had been generating disapproval in the maritime sector.
Some boat owners who spoke with our correspondent said although the registration is a good move, attaching a fee to it, which they had already paid is questionable. They called on the government to urgently wade into the issue.
However, a top member of the taskforce who spoke wit The Tide on telephone on condition of anonymity said what the JTF is doing was verification of already registered boats inorder to enable it control crime in the Niger Delta as well as protect lives and property.
He however hinted that there has been reasonable compliance by boat owners and the exercise is on-going without hitches.
It would be recalled that the JTF announced that vessels and boat owners are to pay the sum of N25,000 registration fee, N10,000 for motorised boats and N5,000 for small boats.
Collins Barasimeye
Maritime
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