THE Single Interstate Road Tax Sticker (SIRTS) and Single Haulage Fee (SHF), initiated by the Joint Tax Board (JTB), was aimed to eliminate multiple taxes paid by transporters plying the Nigerian highways. However, investigation reveals that lack of implementation has not only fuelled illegal tax collection and extortion, but it has also failed to block revenue leakages for the government.

Michael Orere, the divisional head of logistics at ABC logistics, has his reservations about the initiative introduced by the Lagos State Joint Tax Board (JTB) to harmonise multiple taxes paid by motorists plying interstate roads.

“Some states still insist on issuing tickets other than the JTB stickers,” he said, noting that the initiative has remained unsuccessful because it  has not been firmly implemented across the states.

“In some states, the taskforce will compel you to buy their tickets, else you will be delayed,” Orere said, adding that this ugly trend is common in Port Harcourt, Lokoja, Aba, Benin and some other parts of the south-south and south-east zone of the country.

“We are a logistics company; we rely on speed; we can’t afford to waste much time. So, when that happens, we are forced to buy,” he explained.

“It is not as if when you buy it covers you for a while, but every time you pass, you buy another ticket.”

This, according to him, is the situation that the company’s truck drivers face daily.

“At the end of the day, we buy multiple tickets. Sometimes, the tickets might come from the eastern states, Benin or Lagos.”

He said the company prefers to buy from the states in the east to cut costs, adding that it also likes buying tickets mostly from the areas where its drivers are stopped, delayed, and harassed.

Another staff of the ABC Logistics, Thomas Jacobs, said, “Even as of today, there are some states that may not even ask for it, but other states would demand the JTB sticker at the point of entering.”

Jacobs, the company’s administrative manager, observed how relaxed the Lagos State government takes the initiative compared to states like Ogun, noting that the moment a transporter approaches Ojodu Berger, a boundary between Lagos and Ogun, the hustling taskforce people would jump at the driver.

“When a transporter is stopped without having the sticker, the state taskforce bounces on the transporter and would demand an exorbitant amount for fine and for the sticker,” he said.

Even though the SIRTS is sold at the rate of N8,500, having increased from N5,000, drivers when caught have to pay much more.

In the same vein, Emannuel Ibekwe, the assistant manager at Okeyson Transport at the company’s terminal in Jibowu, decried the multiplicity of taxes that companies like his are forced to pay.

He noted that it leads to increased costs of transportation for travellers.

“We pay various taxes and it leads to an increase in prices of transport. People blame transporters, but these are what lead to increases in fares,” he said.

He recalled that the company previously charged N20,000 for day trips and N23,000 for night trips.

According to him, the company currently charges N25,000 for day trips and N23,000 for night trips on the luxury of their long buses from Lagos to Onitsha, Anambra State.

Initiative meant to eliminate extortion

Introduced by the Joint Tax Board (JTB), an apex body for tax authorities in Nigeria, in 2022, the initiative appears to have lacked firm implementation as it is not helping to eliminate illegal tax collection, extortion, and revenue leakages for Nigeria.

The country’s tax policy, fettered with multiple and duplication of taxes, creates burdens on businesses and hinders economic growth.

The JTB initiative, intended to streamline tax collection, eradicate illegal taxation, curb highway extortion, reduce incidents of double taxation, and create a business-friendly environment across the states in the country, has not helped.

In January 2023, Obomeghie Nana-Aisha, JTB’s executive secretary, at a sensitisation and engagement programme for stakeholders on the SIRTS and SHF, lamented that multiple taxation imposed on transporters plying the Nigerian highways were negatively affecting the final cost of goods to consumers.

She affirmed that the initiative was put in place to end illegal tax collection and extortion on the highways and block revenue leakages in the country.

She confirmed that a single sticker costs N3,500 and could be used across the 36 states and the federal capital territory without any form of harassment by the taskforce in any states.

Nana-Aisha explained that the N3,500 was to be shared among the state internal revenue services, vendors and consultants adding, however, that the cost of a single sticker has more than doubled in barely three years to N8,500.

In collaboration with state revenue services, the JTB initiated the implementation of the SIRTS and SHF and launched it in January, with the states launching the programme at various times.

Riding on lean powers

The Income Tax Management Act of 1961 created the JTB and charged it primarily with ensuring uniformity of standards and application of personal income tax in Nigeria.

Specifically, part IV. 2(a) of the Act only gives the JTB the power to design stickers but not to produce or issue stickers. In the same vein, section 2(b), part IV, empowers the states to set up institutional structures to collect haulage fees and not the JTB stickers.

The payment of the SIRTS applies to commercial buses, saloons, wagons, and other vehicles commuting about 18 passengers and below from one state to another.

Illegal stickers sales at local governments

At the Ikeja, Agege and Kosofe Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Lagos State and Ifo LGA in Ogun State, The ICIR gathered that JTB stickers are sold by the local governments. Lagos State shares a boundary with Ogun at the Ojodu Berger axis where Ifo LGA is situated.

It was also discovered that the sticker is included in the documents known as an emblem, issued to transporters plying interstate roads and sold at varying rates at the different LGAs visited.

At Agege and Ikeja, only the SIRTS is issued at a cost of N9,000 while the entire document, containing over 50 papers, is issued at the cost of N25,000.

Getting the SHF paper requires buying the whole document as it is not sold separately. At Ifo LGA, the emblem is negotiable at a cost of N35,000.

“Each state has their headquarters where they collect it. For southwest, Ogun is the headquarters,” a man who simply gave his name as Ahmed, and claims to be a staff at Agege LGA, told the reporter.

“If you have seen the document, you will see that it contains levies from different local governments,” he said, adding that the emblem collected in the south-west differs from that of the south-east and other geopolitical zones.

“In places like the Niger Delta, a transporter must have to collect another set of documents,” he added.

To establish that LGAs in Lagos indulge in the sale of JTB stickers to motorists, the reporter had to return to the Ikeja LGA to purchase the SIRTS, after having gone there some days before to enquiry.

At the Ikeja LGA, the reporter purchased the SIRTS at the rate of N9,000 and took video evidence. When he requested a receipt, the lady who attended to the reporter and gave her name simply as Rofiat, said, “We don’t issue receipts,” insisting that the paper that serves as a receipt is included if one buys the whole emblem.

“This particular one is the receipt where we write the name, amount and what the money paid is for.

“If you don’t want to be spending money on the road it is better you buy everything because that JTB alone is not enough. But if you feel that is just what you want to buy, there is no problem,” she said.

At the Ifo LGA, Abbey Olajide, a staff, corroborated that transporters plying Lagos to the eastern part of the country must add interstate road papers from the Niger Delta to avoid embarrassment and delay by the taskforce.

“You may pay five times what you paid collecting the papers here because those boys on the road don’t have offices and would delay you until you pay them.

“The JTB (sticker) only is N9,000. When someone is apprehended, they will fine you N35,000 and you can’t pay anything less than N30,000,” Olajide explained.

LGA chairmen feign ignorance

The chairman of Ikeja LGA, Mojeed Balogun, said the local government is not involved in the sale of JTB stickers to motorists.

When the reporter put it to him that the Ikeja local government is indulged in the sale of the sticker, he replied, “Let’s have the samples for confirmation at the finance department. Your chats, sent to the finance department  for proper response.”

He has yet to forward the contact of the finance department which the reporter requested as of the time the report was filed.

A similar question was put across to the chairman of the Agege LGA, Egunjobi Ganiyu.

“No. Anyone caught doing that in the name of Agege council should be handed over to the police,” Ganiyu replied.

Meanwhile, the Kosofe LGA chairman, Moyosore Ogunlewe, did not pick up calls or respond to the text and WhatsApp messages sent to him.

It can’t be ruled out entirely that local governments are not indulging in the sale of the JTB stickers to motorists, Festus Ogunjobi, an International Budget Partnership partner in Ogun state, said.

He, however, pointed out that the initiative has failed to achieve the harmonisation intended — where it must be just a single collection across the states — stressing that interstate transport is still fraught with a multiplicity of road taxes. “It is illegal if any state is collecting it (JTB stickers),” Ogunjobi added.

Implementation needs legal backing —  expert

For a state to carry out a tax administration, it must have the jurisdiction power, said a tax expert, Saidi Olalekan. “There must be an authority; otherwise, they won’t do that,” he said, noting that of all the states in Nigeria, Lagos pioneers itself as one that enforces tax rules.

With the federal government’s ongoing tax reform policy being handled by the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee chaired by Taiwo Oyedele, certain agreements in principle are being reached for the state governments to knock off collection of some illegal taxes as the committee is proposing the reduction of all the multiplicity of taxes to about nine with line items.

Whatever is being agreed is likely to be implemented and requires legal backing and the efforts of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to be implemented, Olalekan believes.

The tax expert further said that the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) should be able to speak to the law backing the collection of JTB tax in the state.

“It may not be a federal government law but there must be a state law backing it up because they cannot collect anything from anybody in the state without a legal authority,” Olalekan maintained.

“If another state does that, I could say it is illegal, not for Lagos because of the tax administration system and law it has put in place.”

LIRS declines comment, shifts responsibility to transport ministry

Rather than clarify issues on the implementation of the JTB initiative in the state and the law backing it up, the state’s revenue agency, Lagos Inland Revenue Service (LIRS), declined to comment.

Its head of corporate communications, Monsurat Amasa-Oyelude, told the reporter to direct his inquiry to the state ministry of transport.

“The ministry of transport will be able to answer you. Contact the ministry to get an update on that,” she said and declined further comments.

When contacted, the permanent secretary of the ministry of transport, Maroof Olawale Musa, failed to address the questions sent to him.

“Firstly, I don’t know you and cannot ascertain where you are from or your intent. Secondly, do you think it’s polite to give deadlines for response?

“What if I’m ill or indisposed? I advise that we have official channels for information. Please exploit it,” Musa replied on a WhatsApp chat after repeated calls and messages.

However, findings by the reporter reveal that the JTB stickers are included in the list of taxes recognised by the Lagos State government.

On a web portal headlined, ‘Lagos State Government Electronic Banking System of Revenue Cycle Management,’ the Lagos government has a revenue code, 34114 /4020259 and 34115/4020258, for the collection of SIRTS and SHF, respectively.

According to the JTB specification, a single haulage fee (SHF) is paid by pick-up vans, luxurious buses, 12/14 and 18-tyre trailers and other heavy-duty vehicles at the point of loading and discharge of goods which the states are required to set institutional structure to collect.

Companies resort to night movement to avoid harassment

Some companies in the haulage business have resorted to transporting cargo mostly at night to avoid paying for multiple tickets on the interstate roads, it was gathered.

By then, the taskforce and other law enforcement agencies would have left the roads.

“Even though a transporter bought a complete pack of the tickets and emblems, the taskforce people usually find a way of claiming that a particular sticker has not been bought,” a staff of MSC Line, a shipping company, said, requesting anonymity.

“Even when they claim that they have the complete pack, they won’t sell it completely to you so that they can use that to hold you some other time.”

He added that the company buys the ones it considers more important and asks its drivers to manoeuvre their journey at night, amid the risks in the hands of armed robbers and bad roads that lead to fatal accidents at night.

About 10,617 incidents of various road traffic cases were recorded in 2023 that led to the death of over 5,000 people. In 2022, there were 13,656 incidents, according to records from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).

The agency’s advocacy has been that driving at night on Nigeria’s roads puts all drivers and passengers at risk and is linked to several dangerous driving habits, including poor visibility, over-speeding and exhaustion.

“We don’t move in the day, but at night; by then, the taskforce won’t be on the roads. But you could meet the area boys whether in the daytime or night. That is normal,” the MSC line staff said.

‘Implementation at port terminals needs stakeholders’ collaboration’

Adeyinka Aroyewun, the national president of the Council of Maritime Transport Unions and Association (COMTUA), believes that the SHF single is not implementable in Lagos State, stressing it will require the agreement of all stakeholders in the sector.

“The variation in fee is a result of the disconnect between truckers and importers, clearing agents, and transport agents.

“Many more middlemen shall be reduced when the regulatory agency, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, can bring the importers or their truck owners together,” he pointed out.

Aroyewun also believes the SHF is necessary but not a sufficient condition to address issues of multiple or illegal tax collection, arguing that the multiple or illegal tax collection requires a genuine political will of the government and the law enforcement agencies to be alive to their responsibilities.

The chairman of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) Metropolitan, Abdullahi Inuwa, lamented the weakness and limitations of the SHF.

He said the JTB policy had yet to harmonise multiple taxes and that the local governments keep harassing truck drivers.

“As you can see, besides the JTB, the local governments are still on the road extorting people. The JTB has not been feasible in Lagos,” Inuwa said, calling on the government to take action.

Truckers pay as high as N10,000 at the point of loading

Following the failure of the implementation of a SHF at the Lagos port terminals, truck and tanker drivers loading cargoes at the port terminals pay at the points of loading a haulage fee ranging from N6,000 to N10,000 for every loading, said Sunday Arole, one of the agents at Sifax terminal in Apapa.

“If you are loading in Sifax terminal, you pay N6,000; if loading in Grimaldi terminal, you pay N5,000, and when loading from Five Star terminal, you pay N10,000,” he said, noting that there are various points where truck drivers pay.

JTB initiative lacks awareness, giving room for extortion

Some of the challenges discovered in the implementation of the JTB initiatives have to do with the multiple taxes, especially where you have touts collecting them without any receipts or records, despite the JTB sticker that should be applicable in all states, said Olatunji Abdulrazaq, a commentator on tax issues and principal partner at AoA Professional Services.

He argued that the challenges are complex, especially where most transporters are not in tune with the initiative and where the JTB has not done enough public enlightenment.

“I think the JTB can engage the transporters, truck owners or associations to capture the informal sector within the haulage industry,” he said.

The money collected on the road as taxes does not get to be delivered to the government, Abdulrazaq laments. “It goes into people’s purses.”

He also observed that the JTB also needs to get the support of the National Union of Roads Transport Workers (NURTW) for the initiative to succeed.

“They are the ones collecting these taxes in the form of levies. To get results, it needs to engage all the stakeholders in the transportation and logistics industry,” he said.

This report was done with support The International Centre for Investigative Reporting (The ICIR).