By Henry Uche
Lagos State government is set to harmonize all tax billing and payments as well as levies collectible into a single platform from August 7, 2024. The strategic move is aimed at driving efficiency, compliance, and growth in the state’s revenue sector.
Briefing newsmen in Ikeja, the Special Adviser to the Lagos State governor on Tax and Revenue, Mr. Abdul-Kabir Opeyemi Ogungbo, said the aim was to ensure true transparency and accountability, even as the state would now have only one tax payment enforcement unit.
The Special Adviser revealed that after the launch, the industry harmonization tax revenue would take effect in the fourth quarter of 2024. This, he said is in line with the T.H.E.M.E.S+ agenda of the Governor, built on four pillars: efficient policy structures, power of technology systems, strategic enforcement, and inclusive advocacy.
“The state is vigorously pursuing integration and process harmonization across MDAs with cognate activities i.e Tourism subsector, transport, property environment and widen the payment channels to promote ease of doing business for Lagosians”
Ogungbo maintained that the harmonization initiative would streamline taxes and categorize levies in one system, to avoid paying taxes and levies in the wrong hands and boost proper management.
“The harmonised structure means that you now have to pay your bills at once to one agency, which will now share the tax received to all the agencies involved according to what is due to each of them. These are innovative ideas we are promoting and it’s yielding positive results.”
He explained that innovation has taken place in the tax administration and management of the State, for instance, the Lagos revenue portal: One stop shop for end to end automated revenue management system for billing, payment, receipting and self service component to drive convenience and promote ease of doing business.
“This government does not support area boys (unofficial tax collectors) who collect taxes under any guise in Lagos. There are approved taxes and levies enacted by Act of parliament and domesticated in every states. This Platform would be a self-service central billing and payment system. Residents can access the platform through the link https://revenue.lagosstate.gov.ng/, and also e-tax for tax payment https://etax.lirs.net/.
“We are pushing for a progressive tax structure without overtaxing anyone because we are laced with empathy. We encourage those paying to continue while those who don’t pay taxes should do so, because the government needs the revenue to prosecute critical projects to make life better for residents of Lagos”
He added that the State has targeted N2.264 trillion revenue for 2024, out of which, N1.25 trillion is Internally Generated Revenue, and the government is determined to achieve more with available resources.
“Our AI revenue Chabot, a real time 24/7 enquiry Platform for everything revenue in Lagos, would address tax – related questions and issues from the public for better and progressive tax administration and management.
“There is an ongoing amnesty program for property owners, offering a special opportunity to settle outstanding property taxes. Residents are encouraged to take advantage of this program by making payments through the LRP platform, as well as the e-GIS enterprise solutions being deployed by the State, land administration portal, the Land Use Charge payers activation exercise, among others,” he added.