UTQEN kicks against LASG’s multiple taxes
The Union of Tipper and Quarry Employers of Nigeria (UTQEN), has berated the Lagos State Government over its plan to introduce multiple haulage charges on their services within the state.
Acting National Chairman of UTQEN, Comrade Aliu Mayungbe, disclosed this at a media briefing in Lagos on Monday.
The state Ministry of Waterfront Infrastructure Development recently sought to obtain haulage charge from trucks transporting sands from dredging sites.
Mayungbe, said that the plan was unlawful and a disincentive to businesses in the state.
The chairman noted that members of the union had been paying the said charges to the government regularly through the Ministry of Transportation, stressing that efforts of the Ministry of Waterfront to utilise collection agents to obtain the charges from truck drivers amounts to collecting multiple charges.
According to him, the union maintains a position of neutrality and refuse entanglement in the payment dispute between government and the Dredgers Association of Nigeria.
“Officials from the Ministry of Waterfront Infrastructure Development met with our members to solicit support for introduction of haulage fees on our activities.
“The collection process was for truck drivers to obtain N500 from dredgers on each truckload of sand moved from their site and pay to the Ministry’s collection agent positioned at the gate of the site.
“We resisted the fees because our activities is not regulated by Ministry of Waterfront and Infrastructure Development but by Ministry of Transportation.
“More so, the dredgers that we are being pitched against are members of our union
and every increase in charges by government impacts negatively on our operating costs and reduces job creation opportunities,” he said.
Comrade Abimbola Odusanya, Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Chapter, UTQEN, said that officials of the ministry threatened to imprison truck drivers that refused to boycott sites of dredgers that didn’t comply with the payment.
“Obeying such order will hinder our business activities and relationship with dredgers. We instructed our members to resist efforts of government officials that tried to collect the payment from them,” he said.
