A former Minister of State for the Interior, Chief Demola Seriki, says
that in the face of the dwindling price of crude oil, churches and
mosques that own businesses should pay tax to the government.
Seriki, who was also a supervising Minister of Mines and Steel under the
late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration, said this during an
interview with a Punch correspondent yesterday.
The ex-minister’s call came less than a week after the Federal
Government announced that N50 would be deducted from money deposited
into any customer’s account as part of the efforts to boost government’s
revenue in the face of the dwindling oil price. Continue...
He said religious bodies, especially churches, had built large business
empires including universities but many of them were not paying tax.
The ex-minister said the wealth being made from these businesses was used in buying private jets with the government losing out.
He explained that some churches even had rented apartments in their
various camps but were not paying land use charge to the government.
He said, “Places of worship such as churches and mosques should not pay
tax but when they go into investment outside their main focus, they must
pay tax. For example, there are some churches that are into importing
and exporting and they are benefitting from the economy.
“You cannot do that without paying tax. They are not paying now. They
use the name of the church to escape paying tax. This is wrong.
“Some churches have hundreds of houses in their various camps which they
rent out but they don’t pay tax to the government because they are
registered as religious organisations and are not paying tax. So, we
must change our tax laws.”
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