‘Harmonise outdoor advertising taxes’

The Lawyers in the Media (LIM) has called on state governments to harmonise the taxes paid by the Out door Advertising Agencies

It made the call during the 55th Annual General Conference of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) in Abuja last week.
LIM Chairman, John Austin Unachukwu, said multiple taxation was harmful to the business of advertising.

He praised LIM’s partners, the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OOAN), for their presence at the event.

In a communiqué after the conference, the group said: “The Federal Government cannot lay claim to the doctrine of covering the field in justifying its actions on the FOI as it is neither in the exclusive nor concurrent legislative lists; and as such can be legislated upon by the state and Federal legislature.

‘’On the time for response to requests for information under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, the National Assembly should consider amending the seven-day frame to a more realistic time.

“The office of the Attorney-General charged with producing guidelines under the FOIA should give attention to monitoring compliance with the Act.

“There should be harmonisation of laws on taxation of outdoor advertisement by different agencies and calls were made for the NBA to lead in this campaign.

“This is so as outdoor advertisement is located within the local government authority so only the local government is entitled to collect those charges.

“The fight against corruption cannot hold sway unless issues of the freedom of information are clearly ventilated.”

At the event were OOAN president Babatunde Adedoyin; former Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) Director-General Prof Epiphany Azinge (SAN), Mr R. N. Godwin, among others.