Sanwo-Olu stresses gains of alliance by tax authorities

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has said that collaboration between tax authorities will help not only to increase revenue but also help check evasion in the country.

He said this, yesterday, in Lagos, at the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing between the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Lagos State Inland Revenue Service (LIRS) to deepen tax collection and check tax evasion.

The governor also said that collaborative efforts would help the government to be more responsive to the welfare needs of its citizens.

According to Sanwo-Olu, the collaboration is to support the tax system in achieving its mission and vision, and, by so doing, increase revenue generation and service to taxpayers’.

He said it would also help to eliminate bottlenecks and leakages in the tax system, which constitute significant drain on government revenue and a challenge to efficient collection as well as utilisation of revenue.

The collaboration, The Guardian gathered, became necessary following government’s inability to have readily available statistics on various aspects of taxation in Nigeria.

At the occasion, the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, said the most important aspect of the collaboration was the need to bring potential taxpayers out of their hiding places and make sure they were properly profiled to play their role in the social contract.