The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has rejected the move of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to start the implementation of a certain section of the Cybercrime Act 2015. The section provides for the collection of ‘0.005’ levy on all electronic transactions into a National Cyber Security Fund account with the CBN.

Its National President, Mr. Olusola Teniola, warned yesterday in Lagos that the collection of the levy would inevitably lead to a sharp increase in ‘charges paid by customers’ for telecoms services. He said tariff on voice calls and data cost would certainly go up because the impact of the levy would be passed on to the end user of telecoms services.

The businesses which are to be affected by the levy include telcos, Internet Service Providers (ISPs); banks and other financial institutions; insurance companies and Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Teniola said the CBN has written to the group to brace for the collection of 0.005 per cent levy. He lamented that the industry was already heavily burdened by 39 different taxes, charges and levies imposed on it by the three tiers of government and their ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

He warned that private sector efforts to speed up broadband penetration in the country would affected as investors would choose not to invest in the sector, adding that the $70billion foreign direct investment (FDI) that has come to the industry came from investors and not from government.

He said the association has a mandate to protect the investment in the telecom industry from undue pressure from the government in the form of yet additional burden on our members that are already overtaxed by all tiers of governments.

He said: “The Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act 2015, Section 44 that the CBN seeks to implement, states in Section 44 an establishment of a National Cyber Security Fund.

“In Section 44.2 (a) a Levy of 0.005 of all electronic transactions by the businesses specified in the second schedule to this Act. Where in the Schedule five categories including GSM service providers and all telecommunication companies and Internet Service Providers are to apply this charge.”

“ATCON believes any premeditated actions that are capable of killing the telecoms industry must be eschewed by all tiers of governments in Nigeria as the perceived benefits of imposing this levy on aforementioned businesses have the direct capability to erase if not destroy the achievements that have been made since the telecoms sector was liberated.

“We therefore advise government review this directive as it would affect some macro-economic elements such as loss of employment and we as Industry will have to increase prices to cover the collection, processing and pass on these costs to the 150million subscribers,” ATCON said.

Inconsistent and defective policy formulation

He said the group is of the opinion that formulation and implementation of policies are not properly coordinated in the sense that while some government agencies are working towards migrating all government services online, some others are working towards discouraging people from making use of electronic channels via this obnoxious levy.

“It should be stated for the purpose of records that government should not think that the elasticity of demand for the use of electronic channels is inelastic as this move can stop people from transacting their businesses via available electronic channels,” Teniola warned. (Daily Sun)

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