As part of measures to further prevent financial leakages in the collection of consumption, Ogun State Internal Revenue Service (OGIRS) is introducing electronic mechanism for the collection of consumption tax, which it says will be a ‘win-win situation for government and the owners of bars, hotels, restaurants, event centres where such a tax is being collected electronically.
The state revenue board said such a move would also be adopted and extended to Pool and Betting as well as Lottery, saying electronic mechanism being adopted in tax collection would not only help in blocking financial leakages and revenue generation for government, but for those who also pay taxes to the state government.
Speaking on the e-channel mechanism for tax collection in Abeokuta, the state capital on Monday, Adekunle Adeosun, chairman, OGIRS, said the e-channel mechanism was being adopted to monitor sales and consumption of goods and services at hotels, bars, restaurants and event centres across the state, adding that all sales made on a daily basis would be well recorded and financial leakages will be effectively controlled.
“The owners of those bars, restaurants, hotels and event centres where we want to collect 5% consumption tax will also benefit from the electronic monitoring of taxes.
“Some owners would say, I see lots of bottles in the day, lots of people come in, but when I prepare my Accounts the following day, the Accounts will not justify the sales. This our effort will control that, electronic monitoring will reduce that. Financial leakages will be reduced on our part and also from the owners of such properties”, Adeosun said.
While commending Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government for extending period of Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) from March 31st to June 30th, 2018, Adeosun said the extension of VAIDS window would offer more investors and other people additional opportunities to file for VAIDS as many people are coming forward to declare their assets and income.
The chairman of OGIRS also declared that about 100 high networth individuals, remitting N10 million and above as taxes had been covered by the State-owned Revenue Board, as against what was the practice in 2016 where only two persons were covered, saying more efforts would be exerted to capture more high net worth individuals and people in the informal sector of the State economy.
