Wike berates Abuja “Big Men” for poor tax compliance

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Barr. Nyesom Wike, has said rich people residing in Abuja remain FCT’s biggest problem in voluntary tax compliance for development.

Wike stated this during the inauguration of the newly constructed Collector Road CN2 (Zakari A. Kyari Street), in Abuja on Thursday, by President Bola Tinubu to celebrate his second year in office.

The road, from Arterial Road N11 (Ahmadu Bello Way) in Mabushi to Katampe District, leading to Judges Quarters and other connecting roads were constructed by the FCT Administration.

The minister said that the big men living in the FCT do not like paying taxes.

Wike, however, expressed dismay that the same big men pay their taxes and ground rent voluntarily in London, the United States of America and other foreign countries.

He said that the CN2 road and other connecting roads in Katampe District were executed with taxes and ground rents paid by responsible residents.

“For those who said we sealed their houses for not paying a ground rent, see the value; see the product of paying a ground rent. If you don’t pay, nobody will provide this infrastructure because the only thing the city has is just to collect taxes. People say Abuja is rich. How rich is it?” he asked.

He explained that what Abuja collects from the Federation Account was one per cent of what was due to the Federal Government every month.

“So, assuming that the federal government gets N800 billion every month. One percent of N800 billion is N8 billion Naira and N8 billion is not enough to pay salaries. Our salary today is not less than N13 billion because of the minimum wage increase. So, if we only depend on one per cent of what the federal government gets every month, it means that we can only pay salaries, not to talk about carrying out infrastructure”, he added.