Over 5.5 million people have been evading tax in Lagos State

The Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Tokunbo Abiru, gave the number yesterday at the Third Annual Lecture and Inauguration of the Public Service Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) in Lagos.

Abiru said there are eight million taxable individuals in the informal sector and only 2.5 million are captured in the tax net.

He said: “Taxation is the bedrock of this administration because the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) almost doubles the allocation from the Federal Government. The government is working hard to capture defaulting individuals and businesses in the tax net for proper collation.”
ICAN President Mr. Doyin Owolabi urged traders to report illegal tax collectors to the government.
Owolabi said: “Lagos is the commercial nerve centre of the country, so people expect a lot from the government, but they are not willing to pay tax.

“Some are complaining that taxes are being collected from them by some officials, but most of the funds do not get to the government’s purse. Individuals in the informal sector should report such fake officials to the appropriate quarters, so that they would not have to pay tax twice.”
He said the government would be able to provide necessary amenities for the people, if the IGR increases.

The Nation