Why Ogun IGR Dropped Within Six Months – IRS Boss
By ABIODUN JIMOH, ABEOKUTA
The adverse effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on the economy has caused a drastic reduction in tax payments by business owners and investors across Ogun State.
This effect manifested as the state Internal Revenue Service disclosed to have generated a sum of N15.112bn representing 11.16% out of the projected figure of N135.4bn as revenue between January and June, 2020.
This revenue figure represented a negative variance to the tune of N1.7bn, when juxtaposed with the over N16.8bn generated in the corresponding period in 2019.
Head of the Agency, Adekunle Adeosun stated this before lawmakers at the ongoing 2020 budget assessment by the Committee on Finance and Appropriation led by Olakunle Sobunkanla.
Adeosun, who attributed the shortfall in the revenue drive to the coronavirus lockdown hereby listed revenue sources of the agency within the period under review to include N14.585bn from taxes and N526.776m from licences.
Furthermore, he remarked that the agency had deployed more technological innovation to improve tax compliance such as e-filing, e-assessment and payment through USSD platform, having opened additional road taxes desks in strategic locations in the border areas.
He explained that the basis for the approval of tax reliefs and palliatives were to cushion the effect of the pandemic on tax payers, while encouraging voluntary compliance, he said outstanding tax audit jobs had been allocated to tax audit monitoring agents.
