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The following are
some crucial information releases pertaining to the EBS-RCM:
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Lagos IGR Hits N23b Monthly
DailyTimes: Thursday April 16, 2015
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Lagos State Government, on Wednesday, said its monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) has increased from N20 billion in 2013 to N23 billion last year.
The state government however said that 376 organisations were prosecuted for defaulting in their tax payment.
Chairman of Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), Mr. Tunde Fowler, who made the revelation at a press briefing in Alausa, Secretariat, Ikeja, attributed the increase to the number of people that had come into the tax net of Lagos State.
According to him, “those who are tax compliant in Lagos state are now 4.5 million up from 3.8 million in the previous years.
“The high months of collection are usually in April, May and June. These are the months when companies declare dividends and staffs go on leave and they get their leave allowance.
“In terms of our actual collection, we didn’t increase in IGR. In 2013, we had approximately N236 billion while in 2014 it was N276 billion. So we went from an average of N20 billion in 2013 to an average of N23 billion. And that was one of the things that have kept the state working.”
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Lagos generates N120bn from tax in six months
PUNCH, THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014
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The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service on Thursday said it generated more than N120bn from taxation between January and June this year.
The Executive Chairman of the service, Mr Tunde Fowler, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos that 90 per cent of the taxes were generated from the organised private sector and civil servants.
Fowler said that the remaining 10 per cent came from the informal sector, mostly market women, artisans, commercial drivers and taxable individuals in the state.
He said the state had relied on the Internally Generated Revenue to implement its budget following the dwindling statutory allocations.
The chairman said the increase in the IGR to N237bn in 2013 from N15bn in 1999 were the fallouts of sustained mobilisation and tax education in the state.
“In 1999, Lagos State generated N15bn from IGR but last year it increased to N237bn, an increase of N222bn within 14 year
“There has been a steady growth in tax payment in the state,” he said.
He projected that this year’s IGR would improve beyond the previous years.
Fowler also said that any development required money, adding that the IGR would further bridge the statutory allocation from the Federal Government.
“Any transformation will require money and you can’t transform without funding.
“Now that the allocation from the Federal Government is reducing due to drop in oil revenue, we must look elsewhere to meet up with our budget,” he said.
He said the generated revenue would be used to ensure the state had good roads, improve health services and adequate security.
Fowler assured the residents of the state that 200 roads in the state would be repaired before the 2015 tenure expiration of the administration.
The chairman urged the residents to endeavour to pay their taxes regularly, adding that the money was being used to implement the state’s budget.
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CBN Recovers N13b From Commercial Banks On Unlawful Charges
LEADERSHIP, TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2014
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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has recovered N13 billion in the past two years being unlawful charges by the commercial banks across the country to customers.
This was disclosed by the bank’s director, consumer protection department, Mrs. Umma Aminu Dutse, at a press briefing organised on Monday by the bank’s Consumer Protection Department to mark the commencement of the consumer financial literacy awareness campaign in Enugu state.
Mrs. Dutse, who was represented at the occasion by the deputy director in the department, Mrs. Khadijah Kasim, also said the commission on transaction (COT) charged by the commercial banks has dropped to N2 per a thousand Naira, and would further drop to N1 before the year runs out, adding that the CBN is working towards achieving zero COT next year.
Dutse said the week-long programme would provide an avenue to engage and interact with members of the public in Enugu state for the purpose of creating awareness and promoting financial literacy.
The director said that an in-depth study of the crisis in the global financial market in 2008/2009 revealed that lack of consumer awareness was a key factor amongst others responsible for the near collapse of financial system especially in the banking sector.
She said: “The unpleasant events in the global financial market in 2008/2009 are still fresh in our minds. As a direct consequence, the Nigerian financial system was virtually on the brink of collapse triggered by the global financial crisis.
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What Makes Lagos a Model City
THE NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2014
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WASHINGTON — Nigeria is arguably the worst run of the world’s seven most populated countries. Despite earning hundreds of billions of dollars in oil revenue over the past decade, it is expected by 2015, by some calculations, to have the second-most destitute people in the world after India. But its largest city, Lagos, which until recently was known as one of the world’s most difficult cities to govern, seems to have turned a corner.
Even though it remains a slum-ridden and largely impoverished metropolis, with an exploding population estimated at 21 million (of Nigeria’s 170 million people), it has seen steady improvement in its governance for over a decade. The government has enhanced public transportation, cleaned up streets, upgraded the business environment and bettered the lives of its inhabitants.
So Nigeria, of all places, may be pointing the way to a strategy by which fragile states might begin to succeed: Devolve more power to cities from their corrupt and overcentralized national governments. At least in democracies, the cities have promise because their elected politicians face pressure to deliver specific services to their constituents. In the central governments, which are more remote, there is too much power and wealth to be grabbed by dysfunctional politicians and their cronies, and too little direct accountability.
The emergence of fragile states is one of the world’s most pressing problems. Such states, which include Nigeria, Iraq and Yemen, contain a rising number of the world’s poor (half of the world’s people who live on less than $1.25 a day will be in fragile states by 2015, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) and contribute disproportionately to the world’s instability and terrorism. They have become a major focus of international aid efforts, but it has proved very difficult to improve governance there.
The turnaround in Lagos can be traced to 1999, when Nigeria returned to democracy and the city began holding regular elections. For the first time since independence, Lagos was able to re-elect its own leaders, or turn them out of office. And while national elections became a mud fight between elites to control the state’s enormous oil wealth, local contests forced candidates to show pragmatism and competence.
Citizens in densely populated cities find it easier to organize themselves. And in an ethnically and religiously diverse metropolis like Lagos, politicians could not afford to pit ethnic and religious groups against one another, a problem that has long bedeviled Nigeria. Simple geography also helped the city administration. The powerful and wealthy classes are more likely to insist on better governance when their own neighborhoods are affected.
And unlike national politicians, local leaders know that the better they perform, the more money their city nets. The better its roads, schools and business environment, the more likely companies will pay taxes, and individuals will buy goods and services, which also contribute to the tax base. At the national level, by contrast, the great majority of the central government’s income has little to do with government’s performance, since about 75 percent of the national budget comes from the $50 billion a year that Nigeria collects in oil revenue.
Can Lagos really save Nigeria? Alone, it’s unlikely — one factor is that the country’s population is expected to continue mushrooming to 400 million by mid-century — but Lagos can now be the model for transferring more authority to other cities, such as Ibadan, Kano and Benin City. And they, in turn, could help to shift the polarized national politics that produce the same cadre of unaccountable elites year after year.
For example, if local politicians were better able to raise and regulate local taxes, they would find themselves more accountable to the population. And they would presumably establish a more welcoming local environment for business to flourish, and perhaps start a nationwide chain reaction unleashing the country’s famous entrepreneurialism. If income levels rose, education and a rising middle class might follow. Greater affluence and aspiration, in turn, tend to act as a useful brake on population growth.
Elsewhere, other cities offer a similar lesson. In Medellín, Colombia, the city government outshone the national government in the late 1990s by setting up a network of publicly funded business support centers, investing strategically in transportation and security, and introducing its own program of cash grants to help the poor. Cities such as Chennai and Hyderabad in India have similarly outperformed India’s national government in promoting growth, educating children and reducing crime and poverty.
Can this model hold out hope for other fragile states? Countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and Kenya all suffer from weak and dysfunctional governments, but have cities that could be the basis for a similar model of development. Regular local elections could spur significant changes in Kinshasa, Karachi and Nairobi, respectively, if the cities were granted more autonomy and the tax base was broadened to make government more dependent on local citizens and companies.
Almost half of the developing world’s population now lives in cities, and rapid urbanization is expected to increase this proportion to two-thirds within a few decades, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The city is now the main driver of growth and stability across Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. And the example of Lagos shows that countries can begin to work better when their cities are well governed and thriving.
In other words, cities can help save countries.
Seth D. Kaplan, a professorial lecturer in the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, is the author of “Betrayed: Politics, Power and Prosperity.”
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Lagos tops IGR report
VANGUARD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2013
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Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics has shown that Lagos state internally generated revenue for the period of 2010-2012 was higher than any other state in the country.
In the report which was signed by Statistician General, Yemi Kale in collaboration with the Joint Tax Board, Lagos State generated N185.541 billion in 2010, N202.761 billion in 2011 and N219.202 billion in 2012 making it the state with the highest internally generated revenue(IGR).
“First of all, we see patterns. Lagos stands out from the rest of the country, totally in a class of its own. Two, the south is totally different from the north and generally the economies in the north evidently lag behind,” Opeyemi Agbaje, CEO of RTC Advisory Services told CNBC Africa.
According to Agbaje, the data showed the impact of the major population and commercial centres especially in Southern Nigeria.
“So we see that the top seven or eight states are Lagos, Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Oyo, Enugu, and Cross River. Relatively, the South West stands out even from the rest of the South region. All of these give you a sense around the state of economic development in the regions,” he added.
Rivers State came in behind Lagos state with N173.047 billion and a breakdown showed that the state generated N49.585 billion in 2010, 57.187 billion naira in 2011 and N66.275 billion in 2012.
Data on internally generated revenues of state governments recently released by Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics reveal major disparity in revenues.
Delta ranked third with the most IGR, the data revealed that 26.087 billion naira was collected in 2010, N34.750 billion in 2011 and N45.566 billion in 2012.
“It also reflects the social statistics in terms of education, entrepreneurial activities, the development of businesses, the development of commerce and industries across those regions.”
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Lagos accounts for 43% of N508.2bn states’ IGR
NATIONAL MIRROR, MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2013
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The total internally generated revenue, IGR, of the 36 states stood at N508.2 billion in the financial year ended 2012 up from the N457.7 billion generated in the preceding year.
This represents about 10 per cent increase in earnings on year-on-year basis.
Of the total IGR accruals to the sub-national governments in the year under review, Lagos State alone grossed N219.2 billion or 43 per cent, while Yobe earned the lowest IGR of N1.78billion.
The data is contained in the just published report of the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, on the states IGR for the period 2010-2012.
Rivers State came second with N66.2billion or 13 per cent of the IGR accruals, Delta came third with earned revenue of N45.5billion or about 8.97 per cent followed by Edo State with N18.8billion or 3.71 per cent Oyo State came fifth with N14.6billion and Akwa Ibom with N13.5billion came sixth.
Kaduna, with the highest IGR in Northern States grossed N11.5billion accounting for about 2.27 per cent of the total IGR of the states.
Curiously, seven states namely, Kwara, Jigawa, Ebonyi, Kano, Sokoto, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Anambra and Abia never had reports on their IGR figures for 2012, despite having figures for the preceding year.
For instance, Anambra had N6.1billion as IGR in 2011 while Jigawa and Kano grossed N1.4billion and N7.3billion respectively during the same year.
However, Bauchi, Kwara, Sokoto are amongst some of the states without records of IGR for the three year period under review.
A breakdown of the states’ IGR collections on revenue source basis indicated that Lagos generated N172.4billion from Pay As You Earn; PAYE, compared to N1.89billion earned from direct assessment, N4.36billion from road taxes and N40.5bilion from other revenue sources.
Rivers generated N55.1billion from PAYE; N22milion from direct assessment; N485.9million from road taxes, and N10.6billion from other sources.
A further analysis of the states’ IGR profiles reflected that Kaduna earned N7.05billion from PAYE; N343.9million from direct assessment, N172million from road taxes and N3.96billion from other revenue sources while Yobe, the state with the least IGR grossed N1.03billion from PAYE; N4.11million from direct assessment; N 58.9million from road taxes and N687.2million from other sources.
Again, one of the issues raised by the revenue profiles has to do with agitations by some states, particularly Lagos, on the need for Value Added Tax, VAT, to be allowed to be shared based on derivation formula.
If this has been allowed, then states like Lagos and Rivers would have accounted for over 75 per cent of the states’ IGR.
For instance, the Governors of Lagos State, particularly the incumbent Babatunde Fashola, had agitated for states and local governments to have the lion’s share of VAT proceeds based on derivation principle.
Fashola had noted that it as is the case in established democracies, VAT as sales tax should be the prerogative of the region of origin that provides the enabling environment for its generation.
According to the NBS report for the three-year period, the IGR figures indicated that with the exception of Lagos and possibly Rivers, most of the states did not generate adequate revenues to sustain their respective administrations, thereby proving clearly that but for the monthly distributions from the Federation Account, they will be unable to survive financially.
It is against this backdrop that the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, has in the last two years been charging the states to tap into the non-oil resource opportunities within their domains for economic development.
The Chairman of the commission, Mr. Elias Mbam, in the course of the nationwide public enlightenment programmes and zonal workshops on the proposed new revenue sharing formula, had urged the sub-national governments to be more inward-looking in their revenue drive, pointing out that without that the socio-economic transformation of the states would be mere wishful thinking.
The RMAFC boss had insisted that rather than depending on the monthly distributions from the Federation Account, states should explore the economic potential by developing solid minerals, agriculture and other productive activities needed to boost their revenues.
He had said: “Of recent, we are emphasising diversification. It is becoming obvious that funds from federal allocation will no longer be adequate to match the responsibilities of the states and local governments. And we don’t even know the extent this so called oil will remain. There is need for us to immediately diversify, look into agricultural areas, solid minerals, tourism and other areas of diversification. Every state has areas it has comparative advantage.
“We want to encourage this and we will provide technical assistance to them to ensure that they realise their objectives. So, in order words, we are encouraging the states to feel free to ask for anything, I can assure them that we will do our best to satisfy them.”
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Lagos State has 8million Taxable workers
THE NATION, WEDNESDAY,JANUARY 23,2013
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LAGOS State Governor Babatunde Fashola has said eight million taxable adults are employed in Lagos State.
He said many of them are not tax complaints, in spite of various enforcement strategies deployed by the government. Speaking during the sixth Lagos State Taxation Stakeholders Forum in Lagos, He said the governments use of moral persuasion to make residents pay their taxes has failed.
He said; "All tax evaders would have to meet us at the law court to ensure compliance.
The reason is because our population is growing quicker than the available resources.
We need money to execute a lot of projects."
He said Lagos boasts of over 20 million, arguing that existing socio-economic infrastructure is not sufficient for the state.
"In 2006, Lagos population was N17.5 million. Going by the official growth rate of three per cent a year, nothing less than 3.15 million people have been added to the population," he added.
He said the Constitution has bestowed the responsibility of paying taxes on individuals and corporation entities, stressing that some private organizations have been 100 per cent tax complaints."
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LAGOS SUES 238 FIRMS, OTHERS FOR TAX EVASION
PUNCH JANUARY 16, 2013
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No fewer than 238 court cases had been filed against companies and individuals by the Lagos State Government for defaulting in paying taxes in the state.
The government added that it had also reported 14,000 others to the police, which had invited them to make statements. The government said the invitation was a prelude to instituting a criminal proceeding on tax evasion against them.
The Chairman of the state Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Tunde Fowler, who said the government would no longer treat tax evaders with kids gloves, added that the prosecution would request jail terms for the offenders apart from the monetary penalty. He spoke on Tuesday at a press conference in Alausa, Ikeja, to intimate Lagosians with government’s next step on taxation.
He said, “There are various fines for tax evasion and there are also jail terms ranging from six months to three years. We will not only go for monetary penalty, we will also go for jail term.” Fowler, however, urged residents of the state to voluntarily perform their civic duties because the government was not interested in jailing anybody.
Earlier, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye, said the conference was to “formally notify the public’ of the government’s intention to prosecute tax offenders, adding, that “in few days, the accused persons will be brought to the court”. Ipaye explained that the decision was based the need to make everybody in the state to be alive to their responsibilities.
He said, “Progress in any society is based on productive people setting apart a portion of their earnings for public goods.” The commissioner explained that since 1999, the government had been fine-tuning taxation in the state.
He said, “After that, we enlightened the public on essence of tax. We are now at the next phase which is enforcement. We want to get the people to take the issue of tax seriously by prosecuting the offenders.” Ipaye said the government would be prosecuting individuals as well as companies. “We already have a fiat of the Attorney General of the federation to prosecute. The law says we should not wait before declaring our income,” he said.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Taxation and Revenue, Mr. Abimbola Sodipo, explained that the projection of the state was that eight million people were supposed to be paying tax in the state. He added that presently, only about two million residents pay tax. He said, “The over two million that were paying taxes was a far cry from the eight million that were supposed to be paying. This means that two million people were carrying the burden of 20 million instead of the eight that should be doing so.”
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LAGOS SEEKS PAYMENT OF N138M JUDGMENT DEBT FROM SHELL
THE NATION: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2012.
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The Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue (LSBIR) has urged the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, to order Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), to pay it a N138 million judgment debt.
LSBIR sued Shell on September 12, 2005 at the state High Court, for N182.5million.The money, it claimed, is due to it as deductions and remittances of taxes from Shell, under the Pay –As-You-Earn and Withholding Tax Scheme for 1999 to 2001. Justice Raliatu Adebiyi had ordered Shell to pay the N138, 798,507.43. Shell appealed the judgment. On Apirl 21, 2008, Justice Adebiyi granted a conditional stay of execution of the judgment.
She ordered Shell to pay the judgment sum into an account with the Chief Registrar of the High Court, pending the determination of the appeal. The money was paid. LSBIR (the respondent/applicant), in a motion filed at the Court of Appeal, which was to be moved yesterday, is seeking an order to set aside the conditional stay of execution. Lagos wants the appellate court to direct the Registrar to pay it the money.
It is also praying for an order to dismiss Shell’s appeal “on the ground that there is no valid appeal pending before the court,” or to dismiss it for want of diligent prosecution. But hearing of the application was stalled yesterday because the justices did not sit. An officer of the court said some of the justices were away on other official engagements. Those available did not form a quorum and therefore, could not entertain the case. He said the case and other were “adjourned till further notice.”
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LAGOS TO PROSECUTE 5.3M TAX EVADERS
THISDAY WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2012.
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Lagos State Government yesterday said that it has received the approval of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), to prosecute more than five million tax evaders, failing to comply with the provisions of tax law.
The State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Adeola Ipaye, made the disclosure at a news conference held at the Bagauda Katho Press Centre, Alausa. He also gave a 10-day ultimaturn as a fresh window of opportunity for those affected to comply with the law.
The press conference, whish was organized by the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) to unveil its plans to enforce the 2011 Personal Income Tax Act (PITA), was jointly addressed by Special Adviser on Revenue and Taxation to the Governor, Mr. Abimbola Shodipo; Chairman of LIRS Board, Mr. Babatunde Fowlers; Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Aderemi Ibirogba; and his fianance counterpart, Mr. Tokunbo Abiru.
At the conference, Abiru said the state government’s dependence on the federally allocated revenue had declined to 35 percent from 51.7 percent. He attributed the feat to the drive of the State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN). He said: “Lagos State Government’s dependence on federal allocation was 51.14 percent in 2007. In 2008, the rate dropped to 47.86 percent. In 2011, the rate has equally dropped to 35 percent. This drop was because of the revenue generated through the state internal generated revenue (IGR).
But Ipaye, who was represented by Senior Special Assistant on Justice Sector Reforms, Mr. Lanre Akinsola, said office of the AGF “gave the state government the fiat to prosecute tax offenders in the state under the Personal Income Tax Act just last week.
“This implication of this is that we now have full authority to prosecute criminal either under the revenue administration law of the state or the personal income tax law of the state. Anyone, who is convicted under the law, becomes an ex-convict.”
Ipaye, who decried the increasing incidence of tax evasion, further explained that it “goes beyond the issue of being convicted or going prison. This is because the substantive part will still be paid into the coffers of Lagos State Government.”
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LIRS Boss Challenges State on IGR
ThisDay. FEBRUARY 14, 2012
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The Managing Director, Lagos State Internal Revenue Service, Tunde Fowler has called on state governments to place priority on internally generated revenue (IGR). He said that to rely on foreign grants, loans and federal allocation to run their business would be counterproductive.
Speaking when the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CITN) Ikeja and District Society paid him a courtesy visit, Fowler said: “Without appropriate tax payment and the input of tax professionals like you, no federal or state government would be able to achieve much in this country. Payment of taxes is not an emotional matter; it is our duty as citizens and an act of law of both the state and the federal government”.
He promised to continue to support and cooperate with the institute, to enable it achieve its objectives. The new Chairman of CITN the Ikeja and District Society, Samuel Agbeluyi said the institute now has a functioning secretariat to enable it carry out its functions effectively. “We are therefore set to lend our professional knowledge to the laudable work of Lagos Internal Revenue Service’s (LIRS), Federal Internal Revenue Service (FIRS) and other tax bodies within Lagos State Agbeluyi added.
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Lagos Threatens Tax Defaulters With Prosecution
The Nation,Tuesday, FEBRUARY14, 2012
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Henceforth, there would be no hiding place for high profile tax defaulters in the centre of excellence, says Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN).
According to him, his government is compiling the names of such defaulters for prosecution. Fashola spoke at the Lagos Business School (LBS) Pan African University, Ajah, while making a presentation entitled “A Tale of Twelve Lessons” at the Third Edition of project What Next, organised by the 2011/2012 MBA students of the institution.
At an interactive session with the students after the presentation, the governor responded to several questions including the one on the measures being adopted to capture all taxable residents into the net.
He explained that his administration launched an aggressive advocacy programme on why the people should pay taxes on assumption of office in 2007. Fashola described as totally unacceptable a situation in which people live on the taxes paid by the few, adding that the more people contribute to the common wealth, the better for everyone.
According to him, only 2.5 million of the eight million Lagosians on paid employment pay their taxes into the government coffers. The governor said he has mandated his Special Advisers on Taxation to do a final letter to the defaulters on why they should pay their taxes.
On the Lekki –Ajah Epe Expressway, Fashola said his administration will continue to dialogue with the stakeholders on how to make the tolling arrangement better, saying he will be delighted with the reduction of the toll being paid by motorists.
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Lagos, Ogun teams parley over tax issues, others
THE GUARDIAN, Wednesday, January 25, 2012
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Determined to uphold their peaceful relationship and avoid conflict on boundary matters, the Lagos and Ogun state governments have pledged to work together and resolve amicably all matters relating to boundary demarcations and tax remittance of residence living in the border areas of both states.
Speaking yesterday at the opening of a joint meeting of delegates from both states on boundary and taxation matters at Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.
Lagos state Deputy Governor, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope Adefulire, explained that the meeting would afford the two states a platform to articulate a common policy that would be acceptable and beneficial to all concerned on the issues of boundary demarcations and tax remittance. Stressing the need for peaceful coexistence between the two states, Adefulire, in a statement by her media aide, Tunde Abatan, stated: “Lagos state is ready to go by the law and we will ensure there is harmony and peace between the two states and we will ensure that what belongs to the states is given to them and we will expect them to do same to Lagos state too, through which will improve the existing relationship between us.”
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Gowon Tasks Tax Practitioners on Awareness Campaign
Thisday, May 13 2011
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Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon has urged taxation professionals in the country to increase the tempo of tax awareness campaigns across the country with a view to making Nigerians see the need for them to pay
their taxes in good time.
He gave this charge at the ongoing three-day Annual Tax Conference organised by the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) in Abuja Thursday.
According to him, tax policies are meaningless unless the people see the need to pay their taxes, adding that after paying their taxes, they would in turn demand for their rights.
“It is one thing to have a well-thought through tax system, it is another to have the people willingly buy into it. What this means is that there must also be well thought-through public awareness programmes to enlighten the people on the inherent advantages of paying their taxes and promptly too.
Gowon charged the professionals to raise the tempo of tax awareness campaigns, which according to him would empower the people to demand for the delivery of dividends of democracy from the ruling class.
“This is one area where CITN also has a crucial role to play, for it is when you help spread the work on the need for people to pay their taxes that the work that your members do in or out of government can be appreciated beyond mere
collection and disbursement. “When the people see and understand what you do, they become your advocates.
When they cooperate and pay their taxes, they become aware. When they cooperate and pay their taxes, they are better able to hold government to account. When government is held to account, by the people, public officers become more circumspect and more responsible in the disbursement of public fund.
With circumspection and fiscal responsibility come projects that are more beneficial for the good of the greater number,” Gowon stressed.
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LAGOS: WHY TAXES ARE HIGH
ThisDay, April 20 2011
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Chairman of the Lagos State Inland Revenue Service (LIRS), Mr. Babatunde Fowler said that taxpayers in the state got better values in return for the taxes they paid to the state government in the last four years. He also stated that the level of voluntary tax compliance has improved tremendously in the state during the four years tenure Governor Babatunde Fashola.
Fowler stated this in a chat with THISDAY shortly after delivering a paper at the tax seminar organized by Saffron Professional Services Limited in Lagos yesterday.
He said taxpayers in the state have confirmed that they were happy with the state government because they have received more values for taxes paid in the last four years.
“If you ask me of my own assessment, taxpayers in the state and I believe if you ask them they will also confirm that. Also at the annual stakeholders’ conference, they said that they were happy paying their taxes to the state government,” he said.
Reviewing on the improvements in the tax environment in the state under Governor Fashola, the Chairman said it has improved tremendously. Tax compliance has certainly improved because the governor knows the importance of tax payment. He has plans and visions for Lagos and he knows the role that tax needs to play in giving access to the Lagos State government in terms of funding.
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