Chinenye Anuforo

Given its immense contributions to the growth of the economy, the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has called on government to speed up the policy of protecting telecom infrastructure by declaring it critical national asset.

Chairman of ALTON, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, declared last week in Lagos that the telecommunication industry supports many other economic sectors of the economy and is also the first layer of critical infrastructure for socio-economic development and security and so it is pertinent for telecoms facilities to have first-level protection om government.

Adebayo said: “Telecommunications development in Nigeria is playing an integral role in the country. Telecommunication services have greatly improved our quality of life as a people. From basic voice call to Internet services to numerous value-added features offered by our members. But despite the progress made, we are still facing a number of environmental problems in particular on the issues of interference with the smooth operations of telecom services.”

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He said incidents of closure of ALTON members’ sites and other telecommunications infrastructure on the excuse of non-payment of arbitrarily imposed taxes and levies imposed by states and local government authorities in the guise of internally-generated revenue (IGR) is having adverse effects on quality of service.

“We hereby appeal to the President for a presidential declaration of telecom infrastructure as critical national security and economic infrastructure, as provided by the cybercrime law of 2015,” Adebayo said.

ALTON has also expressed concerns that the Amended Taxes and Levies Order, 2015, engendered the institution of multiplicity of taxes across different tiers of government. 

The ALTON chairman said the amended order failed to define the taxable rate, resulting in the imposition of arbitrary levies and charges at the state government level adding that the industry is also burdened with enactment of laws at the state government level to legitimate spurious levies and charges on its members, which negate the ease of doing business in Nigeria.

“It is disturbing that the entire instrument has given the state governments authorisation to coerce and disrupt the operations of our members in order to compel the payment of sundry levies, charges and taxes. Rather than the amended order addressing the issue of multiple taxation, on the contrary, it increased the tax burden of our members and adversely impacted the ease of doing businesses in Nigeria. In view of the foregoing, ALTON respectfully seeks the intervention of the minister of finance to review the Amended Taxes and Levies Order 2015, which is adjudged to be inimical to the operation of telecommunication operations.”