Chief Demola Seriki, former Minister of State for Interior, says that in the face of the dwindling price of crude oil, churches and mosques that own businesses should pay tax. He said religious bodies, especially
churches, had built large business empires including universities but many of them are not paying tax.
He added that the wealth being made from these businesses are used in buying private jets with the government losing out. He went further to say, “Places of worship such as churches and mosques should not pay tax but when they go into investment outside their main focus, they must pay tax.
For example, there are some churches that are into importing and exporting and they are benefitting from the economy. You cannot do that without paying tax. They are not paying now. They use the name of the church to escape paying tax. This is wrong.
Some churches have hundreds of houses in their various camps which they rent out but they don’t pay tax to the government because they are registered as religious organisations and are not paying tax. So, we must change our tax laws.”….. kp throwing sub at Oyedepo u hear. Urs wld b worse than dt OAP’s own…..