By Adeleke Gbenga
Former President of National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools(NAPPS)Kwara State Chapter, Dr. Rahman Adetunji Lateef has given kudos to the present administration on its current harmonized tax policy.
Dr. Lateef gave this commendation recently in Ilorin Kwara State during which he bared his mind on various Government programmes on education in the State.
He reiterated that the administration’s tax policy recently harmonized to solve the problems of multiple or double taxation has given schools’ owners relief from exorbitant taxes and levies they paid in the past.
The Proprietor of Socrates College stressed that private schools’ owners are not only better informed about tax issues in the State but are now committed to carry out their obligations as dictated by law of the State.
He however appealed to Government to waive some of the taxes and levies the private schools’ proprietors pay, reiterating that they are too many.
Dr. Lateef stressed that many proprietors run their schools on bank loans with high interest rates.He noted that education still remains a social service despite efforts to categorize it as commercial, saying private schools have intervened in education sector to assist Government.
He lamented about heavy cost of providing infrastructure and other facilities private schools must make available to meet the Ministry of Education’s approval for registering schools including that of WEST African Examination Council (WAEC)and National Examination Council (NECO) he described as tough standard.Speaking on multiple or double taxation, he said most of the taxes and levies the schools’proprietors paid in the past were not their taxes but that of their staff.
For example, development levies according to him were not supposed to be paid by the schools’ owners. He reiterated that the levies were their staff’s tax burden which was #100 on every staff per year.
The school administrator stressed that the schools’proprietors were supposed to deduct development levy from staff’s salary to meet the staff’s obligation to Government.Similar thing applied to water rate expected to be deducted from staff’s salary per month between the minimum of #100 to #150, #170, #180 and maximum of #200 as the case maybe.He said these were staff’s taxes and not schools’ tax burden including Pay As You Earn(PAYE).
Dr. Lateef reiterated that most of employers of labour including schools’owners often failed to deduct the aforementioned taxes and levies from their staff’s salary thinking they were helping them.
He emphasized that schools’ owners often paid these taxes and levies, thinking they were their tax burdens.But these grey areas, according to him had been cleared and clarified.
He stressed that schools’owners are now better informed and had adjusted.
He thanked the administration of Governor Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq, commending the administration for its giant stride in education and other physical infrastructure.
Dr. Lateef reiterated that improvement in public schools had put private schools on their toes to aim higher.
