REVEALED: Enugu enforces old law to discourage prolonged corpse storage, clarifies ESIRS Chief

• Enugu state reinforces N40 daily mortuary tax, addressing misinformation and emphasising its legal roots to prevent prolonged corpse storage
• Emmanuel Nnamani, chair of ESIRS, clarifies the tax targets mortuary owners, not grieving families
• This measure aims to prompt timely burials rather than generate revenue for the state to further its growth

Enugu state, on Saturday, reiterated the enforcement of a N40 daily mortuary tax, a move aimed at deterring prolonged corpse storage in local morgues.

Emmanuel Nnamani, chair of the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service (ESIRS), addressed this in light of a widely circulated circular targeting mortuary attendants in the state.

Enugu tackles prolonged mortuary storage. Photo credit: Legit Nigeria
Source: Original

The directive, dated September 17, 2024, aligns with section 34 of the Birth, Deaths, and Burials Law Cap 15, revised in the Enugu state laws of 2004.

Enugu reinforced N40 daily tax

It mandates that a fee of N40 per day be charged for corpses that remain unburied beyond 24 hours. “The sum of N40.00 only is to be paid by owners of a corpse once it was not buried within twenty-four hours. The amount continues to count on daily basis,” the circular specifies.

Payments must be made before the collection of corpses for burial, with the funds directly remitted to the state government.

The tax, according to Nnamani, is not new but has long been part of the state’s legislation. He clarified that contrary to social media misinformation, the levy is not N40,000 but rather N40, and it is an indirect tax borne by mortuary owners, not the deceased’s family.

“It is an indirect tax paid by mortuary owners, not the deceased’s family, and it’s just N40, not N40,000,” Nnamani stressed

Nnamani illustrated that a mortuary would remit N4,000 for a corpse stored for 100 days. He highlighted that the objective of the tax is not revenue generation but to dissuade the habitual use of mortuaries for extended corpse storage.

“Since its introduction, nobody has been denied burying their dead ones,” he added. The state hopes this measure will prompt families to bury their deceased relatives promptly.

Gunmen kill the Chairman of the biggest Enugu market

Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that Gunmen had killed Stephen Aniagu, the chairperson of Ogbete Market Traders’ Association in Enugu state.

Legit.ng reports that Ogbete is reportedly the biggest market in Enugu. The market leader was attacked and killed at about 7 p.m. on Saturday, September 14.

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Source: Legit.ng