Traders Seek Review Of Revenue Taskforces

The Tenant Road
Confectionaries and Allied Traders Association in Aba has called on the Abia State government to reduce the number of revenue generating task-forces in the area.
Its Chairman, Chief Eze Mentus,  said in Aba last week that the reduction would encourage the growth of businesses in the town.
He said there were more than 300 task-forces operating in Aba which demanded large sums of money from businessmen and women under various names.
Mentus said the duplication of task-forces with their crude operation and demand for money from business people was detrimental to the development of businesses in the city.
He pointed out that in the area of transportation alone, buses and big vehicles were being asked to pay for numerous emblems whose cost ranged from N2,000 to N20,000.
Mentus said that such trend had made it difficult for businessmen and traders to get vehicles to convey their goods from states to Aba.
“The drivers now fear that when they enter Aba, they will be asked to pay for so many emblems which will take all their gains in a particular business. “Because of this, the drivers refuse to come to Aba. This is a big challenge to our businesses, especially for those who do not have the means to bring their goods from others states. “So, we will be happy to have the Abia State Government reconsider the existence of these task-forces and to reduce them. “This is to make businesses in Aba more functional in 2014,” he said.
Mentus suggested that rather than create many task-forces whose operations were counter-productive to business development, it would be better to resurrect dead factories to create jobs for Abia youths.
He called on the government to empower the people in Aba not by sharing money among them but by giving facilities through which their lives would be better.