Oluwatosin Lamidi
The Lagos State Government has said that it realised N312.820 billion in 2016 from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), marking N64, 874 billion increases from 2015.
The State Government also said that 420, 000 additional adults were captured into the State tax net, increasing the number of tax payers to five million.
The Commissioner for Finance, Akinyemi Ashade, who revealed revenue generated by the government at the 2017 ministerial press briefing held at Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja, said N3.990 billion was already generated from Land Use Charge (LUC) in the first quarter of this year.
A breakdown of the total IGR by the State revealed that N26 billion was generated monthly by the governm ent within the year under review.
According to him, total Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the year 2016 was N312.820 billion which represents 75 per cent of the projection and 72 per cent of Total Revenue, compared with N247.946 Billion representing 80 per cent of the projection and 69 percent of Total Revenue for year 2015.
Ashade stated that N436 billion represent total revenue for the state in 2016 as against N399 billion realized in 2015.
Explaining part of the revenue source for the State, the commissioner argued: “N7.156 billion was realized from LUC as against N6. 244 billion generated in 2015.”
He noted that public awareness campaigns embarked upon by the government aided the increase in revenue generation in 2016.
“In the first quarter of 2017, LUC collections stood at the sum of N3.990 billion. However, N160 million was paid as death and group personal accidents benefit to deceased beneficiaries and members of staff of Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) in the last one year, while N7 million was received into Government coffers as temporary disability benefits from Insurance Companies in September 2015.”
On the issue of Tax net, the Commissioner stated that 4.6 million were previously in the tax net, saying, the vast reforms in tax auditing processes to reduce turnaround time aided the capture of 420, 000 new tax payer.
“The Agency has commenced the process of deploying technology to report consumption tax transactions online-real time through fiscalisation of consumption tax across the State,” he added.
