Multiple taxations: Senate gives FCTA 2 weeks on GMD petition

Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privilege and Public Petitions, Samuel Nnaemeka Anyanwu, representing Imo East Senatorial District, has given two weeks ultimatum to the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), its Area Councils and the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC) to “resolve matters in respect of a petition of multiple taxations filled against them by the Guild Medical Directors (GMD).”
Anyanwu gave the directive on Monday during the public hearing on the petition, urging both parties to ensure they arrive at a favourable end.
A member of the Committee and Senate Chairman on Primary Healthcare who represents Abia North Senatorial District, Mao Ohuabunwa, stressed the need for adequate healthcare provision in the FCT and across the country.
Ohuabunwa condemned irrelevant multiple taxations on private hospitals, noting that the result “is that doctors will have to charge the patient what the patient definitely cannot afford, or they will render substandard services.”
“Health institutions are different from commercial institutions and there should be different charges or range of charges for hospitals.
“There should be a specific place for hospitals to be established to enable easy management and service delivery especially as we talk about universal health coverage in the FCT. When you put burden on the medical doctors, it comes back to the FCT residents,” he said.
Reacting to the petition, the FCT Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, represented by the Coordinator, AMMC, Umar Shuaibu, denied receiving any complaints of taxation from the Guild, but appealed to the Senate Committee to allow them to interact with the Guild and resolve the issues.
Earlier, the chairperson, GMD, FCT chapter, Dr. Chito Nwana, in her prayers to the Senate Committee, lamented that public institutions “harass private facilities,” stressing that they were being prevented from rendering quality service to the populace.
Nwana demanded “a stop to the unnecessary multiple taxations,” asking the Senate to “look into the laws that give legal impetus to some of these charges with the view to removing any ambiguities or overlaps which these institutions capitalise on to expand their charging capacity.”