Sanni tasks Lagos on multiple taxation

Professor of tax and fiscal matters, Abiola Sanni has called on Lagos state government to urgently eradicate the issue of multiple taxation by sending bills to the house of assembly for passage into law.

He said the bills should be five in number. According to him, the five bills should repeal the stamp duties law, produce sales tax law, trade cattle control and tax law, sales tax law and neighbourhood improvement charge law in order to align the number of taxing statutes with the actual number of taxes being collected in practice.

Sanni made this statement at the 1st annual lecture of the Lagos state professorial chair of tax and fiscal matters with the theme ‘Policy, Legal and Administrative Imperative in the quest for eradicating multiplicity of taxes in Lagos state.’

He also wants the Lagos state government to internally resolve the multiplicity of tax (MOT) arising from the concurrent administration of VAT and its consumption tax.

According to him, the base of the consumption tax should be widened beyond the tourism and hospitality sector.

His words: “This will require an amendment of the charging clause of the Hotel occupancy and Restaurant consumption law to include all taxable intra-state supply of goods and services.”

He urged both federal and state governments to recognize and make their tax authorities prime revenue agency and discourage the current practice whereby all MDAs seems to be competing for an imaginary “revenue generation trophy”.

According to him, the main objective of governments intervention in perfection of land title, obtaining governor’s consent, obtaining license and permits for various items is for regulation purposes and not revenue generation.’

Sanni therefore recommended that the provisions of utilities charges commission Act should be extended to the levies chargeable by federal MDAs, while Lagos state house of assembly should enact a similar law at the state level.