Commercial vehicle drivers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Friday decried disparities in taxation by the various Area Councils in the territory.
Some of them, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said that each of the Area Councils wanted the drivers to pay before plying roads within their councils.
According to Mr Wahab Musa, painted taxi drivers, are paying so much tax on a daily basis and it is affecting our operations and incomes.
“ Normally, taxis pay their levy to AMAC, about N1, 800 apart from the purchase of the daily ticket and Bwari Area Council will ask drivers to pay N4, 500 before you can operate around Dutse, Dawaki area.
“Their officials are always stopping painted taxis operating along that axis, to come and pay to them; they impound our vehicles, the same with Gwagwalada.
“The levy on us is too much, we pay to our unions, buy daily ticket from AMAC and union, we are also billed for coming to the area councils and for using their roads.
“There is no unified taxation for commercial drivers in the FCT,“ he said.
Abubakar Ibrahim, also a driver, said that drivers do not really make tangible gain in the business after paying levies and taxes to the different area councils.
He said that these money collected are meant for the building and maintenance of motor parks which was no always the case.
Ibrahim, however, called on government at all levels to intervene to resolve the issue of double levy on drivers in the FCT.
Rasak Kareem said that painted commercial taxis drivers suffered the most in FCT than the unpainted vehicles.
According to him, the painted vehicles are forced to buy these daily tickets to be able to operate in the city while unpainted commercial vehicles cannot be identified.
“We need a unified taxation for commercial drivers in the FCT, we need to know the agencies that have the responsibility to collect levy from us.
“Every day, officials from Bwari Area Council obstruct our operation around Dawaki, Dutse and Kubwa because they want us to pay to the council after paying to AMAC.“
He further called on the authorities and the Ministry of Transportation to assist commercial drivers in making sure that this double taxation was reduced. (NAN)