Lagos Set To Prosecute Tax Evaders

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, SAN, has declared that the state government will soon commence the prosecution of high profile tax defaulters whose names it has already compiled.

The governor spoke while making a presentation titled: “A Tale of Twelve Lessons” at the Third Edition of Project What Next to the 2011/2012 MBA Students of the Lagos Business School, Pan African University in Ajah.

The governor, who had an interactive session with the students after the presentation responded to several questions, including the one on measures being adopted to ensure that people pay their taxes.

Fashola explained that in the last four and half years government has been engaging in advocacy campaigns on why people should pay their taxes.

He noted that it is totally unacceptable that only a few people who pay their taxes will be supporting everybody, adding that the more people contributed to the commonwealth, the better for everyone.

The governor said Lagos has a total of eight million people who are employed but that only 2.5 million of that number pays their taxes into the government coffers, adding that he has instructed the Special Adviser on Taxation to do a final letter to the defaulters on why they should pay their taxes.

He also corrected the notion that the state shuts down markets to collect taxes, adding that markets can only be shut down in the state if the operators resort to obstructing traffic flow or flout environmental sanitation laws.

The governor who also spoke on the Lekki-Ajah Epe Expressway said the state will continue to engage the stakeholders on how it can make the tolling better as nothing delights him than the prospects of a reduction of the present rates being paid.

Governor Fashola explained that the rates being paid by motorists on the toll roadmay come down later not because the state intervened but because several issues such as the economies of scale which may inform a decision by the operators to cut down on prices to attract more patrons on a daily basis.

While going down the memory lane on the project, Governor Fashola said it was a clamour for better infrastructure against the reality of the paucity of funds in the coffers of the state which informed the recourse to concession agreement on the road.

He said when the concession was signed many years ago, some of the variables have now changed, explaining that Lagos State has also invested in the project just as the several financiers, adding that abandoning the project and concession agreement midway may impair the credit rating of Nigeria before foreign creditors.

Responding to a question on alleged duplication of levies and tariffs, the governor said taxes must be differentiated from levies because unlike taxes which have constituted basis, levies are payments made because of specific services which some agencies offer to the people and for which they must pay.

He said for example, one would not be expected to pay ground rent if he does not own a Certificate of Occupancy while it is only a person who owns a property that pays land use charge.

The governor also said government will soon commence the implementation of the rule that anyone transacting business or making any payment to the government that is above two thousand naira must pay it into government accounts.

He said government has been very lenient in enforcing the rule about the payments but would now start its full implementation .

According to him, government is also raising the bar by apprehending and punishing corrupt public officials.

On the efforts being made to improve water transportation, the governor stated that from about 50,000 passengers in 2008, the state is currently handling over one million passengers over 11 major routes monthly on the waterways.

He said work has been completed on the jetty at Badore and Ikorodu while work will soon be completed on the one at Osborne towards creating a triangle on the lagoon that would enable those going to Eti-Osa, Ikorodu and to the Island as well.

The governor noted that the future of every community depends on the preparation of the young people, explaining that this explains why the state has been providing a learning curve to build experience for those serving in positions of responsibility and get leadership responsibilities.