From February 1, commercial drivers will pay a unified levy of N800 per day, the Lagos State Government says. Reports say a commercial bus driver currently pays an average of N3,000 in daily levies.
The Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration said the new measure is aimed at curbing the menace of touts and thuggery on major highways in the state.
If the initiative is successful, each bus driver is expected to pay at least N288,000 annually into the state government’s coffers, finance commissioner Rabiu Olowo said during an inter-ministerial press briefing in Alausa, Ikeja, on Tuesday.
Olowo also said that a 2021 research showed that Lagos generated not less than N125 billion annually from the collection of levies from the transport sector.
The chairman of the Lagos chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) Musilihu Akinsanya, aka MC Oluomo, and other stakeholders from the private the public sectors were at the presser.
“Mr Governor has made it a priority to put the interest of Lagosians first that is why we all the stakeholders are here today. Before we came out, we have fought, disagreed and agreed on the need to have our consolidated informal transport sector levy,” he said.
“The government of Babajide Sanwo-Olu has inspired that we all come together to have a consolidated levy that takes care of personal income taxes, dues on environment Local Government levy and others. We want to reduce the multiplicity of collection taxes, dues and levies.”
Olowo said each commercial bus operator would be entitled to a tax card daily to have a hitch-free exercise.
MC Oluomo, however, stated that the N800 would not cover the levy collected by NURTW members who are known as ‘agberos,’ saying it only affected the taxes and other charges being collected by the Lagos government.
There are indications that the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) will also continue to collect its levy.
