C'River: Delvan, Traders Lament Losses As Works Commissioner Usurps IRS Schedule 

....Impounds over 30 vehicles for nonpayment of road maintenance levy

....Engages revenue contractor for levy collection

By Dominic OKOH and Edem ITA

Traders and business operators in Calabar Operators relying on the services of the Delivery Vehicles Drivers and Owners Association of Nigeria, DELVAN, for movement of goods are now counting their losses following the indiscriminate impoundment of commercial vehicles with DELVAN emblem by touts purportedly engaged by the Commissioner for Works, Mr Pius Ankpo on the pretext of nonpayment of Road Infrastructure Maintenance Levy to the revenue contractor he engaged to handle the beat.

The sad episode has pitched the Cross River Commissioner for Works, Hon. Pius Edet Ankpo, and members of the Delivery Vehicles Drivers and Owners Association of Nigeria (DELVAN) on a war path with DELVAN threatening legal redress over the impoundment of 30 trucks for alleged non-payment of road maintenance levy.

Since the enactment of the Cross River Road Infrastructure Maintenance Levy in 2012 by the House of Assembly, some government ministries and agencies have been at loggerheads with owners of private and commercial vehicles used in the movements of goods and people within the state over illegal multiple extortions.

Investigations by The Beagle News revealed that the scenario worsened during the Ayade era with several ministries including transport, works, finance, and Internal Revenue Services (IRS) trading tackles with one another over who collects the maintenance levy running into several millions of Naira annually.

However according to the Cross River Road Infrastructure Maintenance Levy Law enacted in 2012 and as amended in 2016 obtained by The Beagle News, “the levy shall apply to all commercial vehicles including trucks and tankers and owners of businesses who convey high tonnage of goods on the state roads.

“At the commencement of each year, the owner of commercial and private vehicles operating in the state shall be liable to pay, in respect of the vehicle, the appropriate levy as specified in the regulations issued under this Law by the Commissioner.

“Payment shall be effected into the designated account of government as shall be specified by the Accountant-General of the state and the Internal Revenue Services…Bulk haulage vehicles engaged in the consignment of goods shall in addition to the annual levy prescribed, be liable to pay from every consignment.”

Checks by our correspondent further revealed that between 2015 and June 2023, political appointees under various names and guises collected these levies without remitting the same into government-designated accounts as stipulated by law.

On their assumption of office, Governor Bassey Otu initiated deliberate steps to streamline, synchronize, and harmonize all revenue points and domicile such at the Internal Revenue Service with the Ministry of Finance as coordinating Ministry of All Internal Generated Revenues (IGR) with a view of promoting accountability, while checkmating loopholes identified as being responsible for leakages which accounted for huge losses in the system.

However, in what seems like a brazen display of impunity, the commissioner for works in a veiled unilateral attempt of transforming his ministry into a revenue-generating outfit, decided to set up a committee on how to go about it, and the committee was said to have advised that the road maintenance levy axis be explored.

Ankpo, against the provisions of the Cross River Road Infrastructure Maintenance Levy 2012 as amended 2016, went further usurping the function of the IRS, took over the road maintenance levy, and contracted it out to a crony contractor that has been going about molesting commercial and private vehicles to pay the levy into a personal account.

Further investigations revealed that those vehicles that have failed to pay up have been impounded even as a source to the DELVAN office in Calabar revealed that they have paid the sum of about N530,000 so far to the contractor's account at Access Bank with account name Emmanuel Etim Eyo dated August 29 and September 15, 2023, respectively.

When The Beagle News visited the Ministry of Works complex at Ekorinim along the Murtala Mohammed Highway, over 30 vehicles carrying DELVAN stickers and goods worth several millions of Naira were seen parked at the compound.

Some of the goods have been drenched in rain and the contractor has vowed to collect all the levy before releasing any of the vehicles to the owners. 

Reacting the President of DELVAN, Comrade Raphael Sabastine, said they may seek legal action against the government if they refuse to release their member's vehicles.

Sebastien said their members hardly default in payment usually done into government designated accounts obtained from the IRS after automated assessment wondering why they should be subjected to such ordeals by another government establishment.

According to him," We want the government to harmonize Levy collections to avoid double levies, undue embarrassment capable of scaring away potential investors from the state".

We can't understand this ugly scenario why the commissioner for works and his agents should molest us on the road and impound vehicles carrying goods worth millions of naira".

 Sources at the ministry confided in our correspondent that some directors had earlier advised the commissioner to release the vehicles since the act negated his statutory schedule but Akpon was adamant, insisting that "in the face of poor funding since inauguration, he must devise a means of survival."

Several calls put across to the commissioner for works were not returned at the time of filling this report.