By Adedeji Adeyemi Fakorede
Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) said it may be forced to shut down network services in seven states over closure of Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) by the state governments.
ALTON accused Ogun, Ondo, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Osun and Kaduna states of treating telecoms industry as an extractive sector by imposing myriads of taxes on operators and closing down the BTS sites arbitrarily.
Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, ALTON, also called for presidential declaration of telecommunication infrastructure as National Security and Economic Infrastructure as contained in the cybercrime law of 2015 as a way of guiding telecom infrastructure against vandalization as well as incessant government agency shutdown of cell sites.
Adebayo who stated this while addressing a press said that telecom industry supports many other economic sectors whose operations and trade depends on its services.
“We are also in the first layer, when it comes to critical technology service for enhanced safety and security. Unless we have first level of protection by Government, it will be difficult to continue to provide uninterrupted services with the type of venerability of our
members and their infrastructure”.
He also expressed concern over the recurring cases of telecom sites closure by government agents.
“We continue to record cases of arbitrary site closure in many states of the federation in an attempt to force service providers to pay local taxes and levies some of which are multiple in nature and most of which are only aimed toward telecom operators; What has telecom operations got to do with ‘Eco Tax for gaseous emission and gaseous emission” when we do not have moving machineries and production lines?
What has telecom service got to do with Sewage, Sanitation and public convenience levy, when we are not hotel and bar operators?”
Adebayo also decried a situation in the country where states and local governments are emphasizing more on internally generated revenue against the benefits of telecom service urging them not to see telecom as extractive industry.
“We consider tax payment as a matter of patriotic duty being one of the elements of good corporate governance: We appreciate the fiscal pressure on Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the respective Federal, State & LGA, particularly, in the face of dwindling federal allocation. However, we believe that taxes and levies should be broad-based and fairly distributed across all sectors of the economy; there is therefore no justification for targetted and sometime very high taxes on telecom operations. We are calling for a
cross-sector/multi-stakeholder approach to reduce growing burden of taxation on our industry,” he said.
He added that telecom being in the exclusive list of federal taxes, there is a need to streamline all such taxies and levies which should not be aimed mainly at telecoms infrastructure.
“We are considering very carefully the situation of site closure and harassment of our members in some of the following states and we may begin anytime soon to have them feel the impact of their actions on telecom operators if they do not desist from deliberate disruption of our operations, these are: Ogun, Ondo, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Osun and
Kaduna States due to arbitrary closure of telecom sites and actions of government impacting on our operations. The States are treating our industry as an extractive industry and imposing myriads of taxes on our member and closing down the BTS Sites arbitrarily.”
According him, ‘quality of services across the various networks have continued to record significant improvement since 2015 as our members continue to invest in network elements to enhance good quality of services across the national network. ALTON has continued to advocate other factors affecting quality of services such as unlawful closure
of BTS sites by State Agencies and issues of Multiple Taxation and Regulations’.