The assistant director of the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Mrs Juliet Agu, has charged civil society organisations (CSOs) to collaborate with states and the federal government to prosecute non-state actors perpetrating multiple taxations in the informal sector.

Agu gave the charge while brainstorming with some civil society organisations led by Oxfam with officials of the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning in Calabar yesterday.

She stressed that with the collaboration, non-state actors perpetrating illegal and multiple taxations would be thrown out of business to set entrepreneurs in the non-formal sector free from exploitation of non-state actors.

"We came here as a team from our ministry to come and see what Oxfarm is doing and to authenticate documents that they submitted on the impacts of their activity in certain locations.

"We went to Yola, Mubi, precisely before we came to Calabar, to look at Oxfam's activities. From the information we gathered here, their activities are basically related to the tax justice system.

"This is because sometimes the individuals involved in collection of multiple taxation may be doing that without the knowledge of government. This is where the impact of civil society organisations (CSOs) should be felt.

"They should find out from the state government. Gone are the days when people just work, now it's different. You sit down in a round table discussion to find out what is going wrong. You have a dialogue on what is going on in the area of taxation in Cross River State.

"Anybody doing something on the contrary should be held liable for criminality because when you give in to multiple taxation, it's criminal."

"People from the informal sector, form the habit of paying taxes even though I am against multiple taxation. They should pay taxes so that economy of our dear nation can grow.

"Let me state categorically here that taxation is not a crime as far as we are concerned. Most countries of the world that grow their economy positively, tax is part of it.

" I will give you an instance: states like Lagos State can exist without federal allocation because they leverage on taxes. People should have the culture of paying tax, this is what we need as Nigerians," Agu stressed.