Benue tomato sellers protest government’s high taxation

As the cost of food items continued to rise due to the economic down turn in the country, sellers of vegetables, particularly tomatoes, yesterday protested against the high tax charged by officials of the Benue State government, describing it as exorbitant....


New Telegraph gathered that officials of the state Board of Internal Revenue (BIRS) had stormed Tarhembe Market in Wannune, Tarka Local Government Area of the state, where tomatoes were being produced on a large scale and alleged to have collected money, ranging from N200 to N500 per basket of tomatoes from local farmers, no matter how small the basket was in the name of taxes for the state government.

According to one of the BIRS officials, who spoke with New Telegraph, but preferred not to be named, the exercise was “a directive from above that must be carried out” as part of efforts by the present administration in the state to raise internally generated revenue and pay the backlog of salaries owed workers.”

The state owed its workers in the local government more than six months, including primary school teachers, while those at the state level are being owed up to four months. When New Telegraph stopped over at the market to observe the situation, tomato farmers, mostly women, were seen carrying tomato baskets on their heads and singing solidarity songs in protest against the government’s high tax regime.

As a result of the protest, traffic on the road leading to the market and that of the ever busy Gboko-Makurdi Road at Tarhembe settlement, was obstructed as hoodlums took advantage of the protest to block the road as they insisted that the BIRS officials must leave the market. The road was, however, cleared, following the intervention of security men.

Some of the tomato sellers, who spoke with our correspondent, including Mrs. Rebecca Terfa and Peter Tyoapine, both civil servants, said as a result of this, buyers who normally bought the commodity in large quantities, also refused to buy as the BIRS officials were collecting huge amount of money from them as taxes. “We are not happy with what the so-called government officials are doing here, they said.”