The Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has warned that local government agencies are threatening to shut down base transceiver stations (BTS) in a number of states if companies fail to pay multiple taxes and fees. BiztechAfrica quotes ALTON’s executive chairman Gbenga Adebayo as saying at a press conference that services are being affected by parties working on behalf of tax-raising bodies in the states of Ogun, Ondo, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Kaduna and Osun, and has warned that telecoms operators may opt to shut down sites that have been subject to local taxation. ‘We believe that taxes and levies should be broad-based and fairly distributed across all sectors of the economy,’ he said, adding: ‘There is therefore no justification for targeted and sometimes very high taxes on telecom operations. We are calling for a cross-sector/multi-stakeholder approach to reduce the growing burden of taxation on our industry.’