By Omoh Gabriel & Iloaze Blessed-Odidi

Lagos State Government yesterday said it has established a Rapid Tax Prosecution Unit to aid the Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) in its drive to collect taxes, adding that the unit would work closely with the Revenue Court which the Chief Judge of Lagos State recently agreed to set up.

The State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Adeniji Kazeem, who stated this in Alausa Secretariat, said in view of the extreme financial downturn, there was the  need for government to ramp up its Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, stressing that the state would spare nothing in enforcing the laws regulating tax payment.

Speaking at the event the Executive Chairman of Lagos State Internal Revenue Service, LIRS, Mr. Olufolarin Ogunsanwo, said that the state will expand the tax base to now include domestic servants, artisans, and the informal sector.

He said; “In view of the declining revenue from the center as a result of the fall in the price of crude oil, LIRS is poised to tap into other revenue sources such as consumption tax from hotels, withholding tax on contracts, rent, royalties and other areas to shore up the revenue.

“We have identified three categories of tax payers in the informal sector. These are market men/women and artisans, micro, small and medium scale enterprise (including Professionals), Household Domestic Staff, HDS.

Continuing, Kazeem said; “Prosecution and jail term for defaulting tax payers will be a tool that we will be actively use to ensure full compliance. Tax officers, I understand, will be very aggressive in their collection of taxes and the public is hereby advised to cooperate with them because obstruction of these tax officers in their lawful duty can and will lead to prosecution.

‘’Tax dodgers watch out because the long arm of the law will eventually reach you. All tax payers are also reminded that giving false information is also an offence and can be used in the prosecution of your tax default. If you pay your taxes regularly, you will have no problem,” Kazeem said.

On his part, the State Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Mustapha Akinkunmi, said the state generated at least N24.5billion from IGR in the month of January 2016, in line with the efforts of the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode-led administration to reform its tax system and develop a tax paying culture.

Akinkunmi said that in the light of the reduction of federal transfers to states including Lagos, the state government was looking inwards to secure sustainable ways of increasing its revenue profile and plugging leakages in the system. He said majority of the state’s IGR is generated through tax collection, administered by the LIRS.