SALES TAX REGIME SPARKS DOUBLE TAXATION WORRIES IN PUNTLAND

[Deeq A.]

Garowe ( PP News Desk) – Businesses in North Galka’yo under Puntland State were closed for trading yesterday in protest of a new sales tax regime introduced by Puntland Finance Ministry.

Business owners take  issue with the new taxation policy that obliges them have tax levied on their goods at a customs point and business premises. Puntland authorities in North Galka’yo temporarily detained business owners, who had voiced their anger at what they view as double taxation aimed at boosting Puntland government revenues at the expense of local businesses.

Double taxation stifles entrepreneurship in Puntland

Authorities confiscated  equipment of journalists covering the story and manhandled three journalists. The Finance Ministry of Puntland has not commented on the controversial sales tax introduced in North Galka’yo.

 In a 2009 paper on taxation in Puntland Professor Mohamed Said Samantar of Puntland State University argued that the Federal Member State “does not have a clear-cut and well defined taxation policy such as … poverty reduction, export promotion and import substitution.”

© Puntland Post, 2020

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