Bamenda traders strike against corrupt tax officials

Traders of the Bamenda Main Market and environs have been called upon to henceforth declare and pay their taxes directly at the various taxation centers against a receipt and not to middlemen or agents.

These calls were made by the Regional Taxation Boss Fondzenyuy Fidelis, the Regional Delegate of Trade, Anye Cletus Matoyah and the Government Delegate to the Bamenda City Council, Vincent Nji Ndumu while addressing traders of the Bamenda Main Market who recently observed a one day sit down strike at the entrance of the main gate.

The strike was organized as a formal protest to what the traders termed unjustified extortion of money without issuance of receipts corresponding to the amount collected by the agents of the taxation control unit.

The traders’ decision to called for a sit down strike is said to have been provoked by the fact that the intervals at which the rounds were made and certain unexplained additional taxes being demanded by the agents necessitated the need for such a strike to draw the attention of the authority.

Foreigners doing business in the main market especially the Ibo traders were being forced to pay what their Cameroonians brothers were not paying.

Speaking on behalf of the Traders Association of the Bamenda Main Market, Nji Victor Anye explains that, some of them have bestowed a lot of confidence and trust on these Fidelis Fondzenyuy’s men over the years without any fear as most of them have served in that capacity for long, as such they were sure and confident of their honesty, not until when a new team came in and insisted on seeing their original receipts to payments made.

It is from the recent control that they discovered that they were being cheated. Out of over one thousand sheds controlled in the main market, not up to 700 of them had receipts with amounts corresponding to the internal ledger control sheets and the duplicate of the receipt booklets. Other shed owners accepted to have paid but receipts not issued. These are just a few of the wrong doings of these unscrupulous officials.

Another delegation whose control brigade has been accused of malpractices is that of the Delegation of Trade. This brigade is supposed to flush out illicit goods, control prices, check the weighing and measuring instruments to ensure that consumers are not being exploited.

These men on the field have been spotted receiving bribes from traders found trading with goods considered harmful and unlawful. These goods are supposed to be seized and handed over to the committee for destructions.

The Bamenda Main Market is noted for the sale of fake goods, a source noted.

In a similar development, a military officer on the eve of an important military occasion at the Bamenda Commercial Avenue is said to have set a hawker’s truck of goods ablaze after being sold a fake black tin of polish and a tub of fake rubbing oil.

Meanwhile, the Governor of the North West Region Adolph Lele l’Afrique , Chairman of the Destruction Committee in an internal Memo to the workers of these delegations have promised court action to any worker caught in such act of corruption.

He further advised them to shun such deviant behaviours and live within their means. He went on to admonish them to respect the ethics of their profession and uphold the oath they took in court to execute such a tempting and delicate function.

To the traders, he urged them to always declare the right value of their businesses and to pay their taxes directly at the taxation centre within their jurisdiction and within time to avoid embarrassments.