{"id":8207,"date":"2013-08-12T10:39:51","date_gmt":"2013-08-12T10:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigerian-newspapers\/tax-system-threatens-enugu-free-healthcare-delivery\/"},"modified":"2013-08-12T10:39:51","modified_gmt":"2013-08-12T10:39:51","slug":"tax-system-threatens-enugu-free-healthcare-delivery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/tax-system-threatens-enugu-free-healthcare-delivery\/","title":{"rendered":"Tax system threatens Enugu free healthcare delivery"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Enugu State tax system that requires expectant mothers to produce evidence of tax payment by their husbands before they could access free healthcare facilities has been decried.<\/p>\n

In a town hall meeting held in Nsukka, a group, Partnership for Transforming Health Systems, said review of the free health policy to include evidence of tax payment before expectant mothers could access healthcare facilities had adversely affected the state government\u2019s health policy.<\/p>\n

It will be recalled that Governor Sullivan Chime six years ago introduced the Free Maternal and Child Health (FMCH) scheme to reduce maternal and infant mortality, but later reviewed it to make tax payment compulsory for husbands of the benefiting women.<\/p>\n

The state Commissioner for Health, George Eze, said the tax introduced by the government for beneficiaries of the programme was not directed at pregnant women but at their husbands.<\/p>\n

But spokesperson for civil society organisations in the state, Mr. Crownwell Chibuzo, told stakeholders at the meeting, including government officials, that the FMCH, which targets the vulnerable in society, is now beyond the reach of the vulnerable because of their inability to present evidence of tax payment, among others.<\/p>\n

Chibuzo said: \u201cThe evidence of tax payment should be completely removed. If somebody is vulnerable, it means that he is incapable of paying taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsking such to pay tax will be a challenge. However, we are mindful of the fact that government runs its programme on tax payers\u2019 money. We are also suggesting that taxes in rural areas should be paid on the basis of rural community so that at the end of the year, when they must have done their meeting, they could raise the money and present it to the government and receive their clearance certificate.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: National Mirror Newspaper<\/p>\n

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