The Chairman, Enugu State In­ternal Revenue Service (ESIRS), Emmanuel Ekene Nnamani, has said that the state has been able to solve the issue of multiple taxa­tion through the introduction of a single yearly unified tax pay­ment system using the e-ticketing solution.

According to him, the system allows business owners in the informal sector to pay their tax­es once a year using an e-ticket platform rather than paying into different revenue generating ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) in the state.

“Enugu State has the most friendly tax environment. This is especially observed in the in­formal sector. In Enugu, one of the things we’re known for is the e-ticket, a unified tax collection or consolidated tax collection. What it means is that the government brought all these revenue gen­erating MDAs into the e-ticket system so that once anybody in the informal sector pays through the e-ticket, nobody comes to ask for tax from that person again,” Nnamani said.

He added: “For instance, in all the markets in Enugu State, you pay once in a year and nobody disturbs you again in terms of revenue. So, with that, it has made Enugu a friendly tax en­vironment whereby you know what you’re supposed to pay; you pay it and go about your business. “

“It’s not about paying multiple times because when you pay once through the e-ticket, the payment splits to other agencies too. That’s the type of environment that en­courages business to thrive and makes it easier for our people to do business.

The ESIRS Chairman fur­ther said a similar system ap­plies to the formal sector where business owners do not need to pay multiple times to different agencies.

“For the formal sector, we have employed what’s called a Consoli­dated Demand Notice. With this, you do not need to pay Land Use Charge and ESWAMA bills dif­ferently. The notice is all-encom­passing. With one single demand notice that covers all fees sup­posed to be paid to the state. You can now choose to pay monthly, quarterly, or annually because the essence of the economy is for businesses to do better. So, in everything we’re doing, we’re cautious because it’s businesses that propel tax generation or col­lection and grow the economy. If businesses are redundant, tax generation would be redundant,”he said.