…Says agency arrest three officials for cloning receipt

By Shina Abubakar – Osogbo

Out of the 1.8 million adults resident in Osun State, only 600,000 pay tax to the coffers of the state, as government intensify efforts to expand taxpayers base by next year.

According to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Osun Internal Revenue Service, Adegbite Ademikanran, the state, rather than overburden those already paying taxes, is focusing on bringing more informal sector workers into the net of taxpayers in the state.

Fielding questions from journalists at the state correspondents chapel in Osogbo on Tuesday, he said the minimum tax payable by the informal sector annually is N3,000 and can be paid in instalments of minimum N1000 monthly.

He disclosed that the threshold was set to accommodate those who do not keep a record of their transaction, especially petty traders, saying some other categories of the informal sector are not within the presumptive tax bracket.

He said the agency, in its efforts to block leakages arrested three state officials, who had been cloning tax receipt and issuing same to unsuspecting members of the public.

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According to him, the three officials have been arraigned in court and granted bail, but investigation is ongoing to ensure that they are brought to justice.

“Our efforts are to ensure that we do not burden residents of the state who are already paying taxes with more rather, we are targeting those who are making money but are evading tax payment.

“We want to ensure that that we expand the tax net from the present 600,000 persons to about 1- 1.2 million persons across the state and embarked on enlightenment campaigns to educate the populace on the need not to evade tax.

“We are also seriously to make sure we block leakages through which funds are stolen, hence, the agency discovered and aided the arrest of three state officials, who specialised in collecting money from members of the public and issues them a cloned receipt.

“They have been arraigned and granted bail, but an investigation is going on to make them face justice.

“From next year, we will ensure that we deploy technology to detect tax evasion, as well as block issues of leakages”, he emphasised.”

Vanguard News Nigeria.