Ekiti House summons IRS boss over tax hike
BY GBENGA ARIYIBI
ADO-EKITI—Ekiti State House of Assembly has summoned the chairman of the state Internal Revenue Service, Mr Kolade Emmanuel Ayodele, to explain the current tax regime being paid by the public servants in the state.
Various categories of public servants in the state have raised alarm over the hike in taxation after the state government started paying the N13,000 staff relativity salary.
This was the fall out of the motion moved by a lawmaker representing Oye Constituency I, Hon. Ade Ajayi, under ‘matter of urgent public importance.’
He described the current regime as too high for the state workforce.
Ajayi who was the former chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in the state was of the view that the new tax regime was, ‘retrogressive and unproductive,’ adding that “it has added more burden to the already existing burden on the people of the state.”
The lawmaker observed that ‘’though payment of tax is non negotiable, but if we must pay tax, we must know how we arrived at the decisions.
‘’The House must wade in now to resolve the issue before it becomes an embarrassment to the state, Ajayi added.
His words “everywhere we go, we are attacked by our people over the high tax regime in the state,” noting that the attacks were now becoming frequent and called for urgent action.
While seconding the motion, Hon Gabriel Ogundele,who represents Efon Alaye constituency in the assembly, urged the House to summon the chairman of the state Internal Revenue Service to appear before the lawmakers to explain the taxes.
However , the House Majority Leader,Hon Churchill Adedipe,, differed in the debate, noting that taxes was the law and should be the obligation of the citizenry to the government.
He added that the government needed the taxes to be able to perform its statutory functions, including the development of the state.
But, majority of the lawmakers disagreed with their Leader, describing the tax as anti-people move that must be looked into.
While ruling on the motion, the Speaker of the House, Mr. Adewale Omirin, shared the view expressed by Ajayi, adding that members had been variously challenged on the new tax regime.
The House unanimously agreed that the chairman of the state revenue service be summoned to appear before it on Monday October 31.
In a related development, the House has directed the 16 councils in the state to clear the bushes taking over the roads linking the various councils.
