The
financial hub of Nigeria is yet to fully implement a strong tax policy
that is difficult to evade by its millions of residents.
Akinwunmi Ambode
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode has identified the need
for residents to adopt a willful approach to the payment of taxes as a
means of addressing fundamental challenges confronting the State and
accelerating development in all sectors and sections.
Speaking at a sensitization workshop on 2017 Water Technology and
Environmental Control Exhibition and Conference (WATEC) held at Ikeja,
Governor Ambode said out of a population of 22million, only 600,000
Lagos residents are up to date in paying their taxes, and that such was
not helpful to scale up provision of infrastructure and other amenities
for the people.
Responding to a suggestion from one of the participants at the
workshop that the State Government should complete the ongoing shoreline
protection particularly in the Lekki and Ajah axis as one of the ways
to mitigate the impact of torrential rainfalls which caused flooding in
the axis last week, Governor Ambode said in as much as government was
willing to do such, it was being inhibited by its limited resources.
He said: “Talking about protecting our shoreline, I want to
tell you something. The ecological fund that someone talked about does
not exist because the previous government, due to political
consideration, never gave Lagos anything and protecting the shoreline
runs into billions.
“Even doing those groins not to allow the water to break cost a
lot of money and then with frozen taxes in the last eight to ten years,
there has not been any increase in taxes unlike in the United Kingdom
for instance where any young person living there knows that once you
start working at the age of 18, your civic obligation is that you must
pay tax but here nobody takes it as their business that the new road I
am using I need to pay something and so they only pay tax when they are
inside the real tax net that is you are paying pay as you earn.
“That is the only way we can catch you and so everybody takes
it for granted that government will do it and there is nothing like
government money, it is taxes that people are paying that you are asking
for this shoreline protection, it is from the taxes that you are asking
for us to de-flood, it is from the taxes that you are asking for us to
do the roads and all that.
“The number of people paying taxes in Lagos is less than
600,000 people and we are 22million and then 67 percent of the people
living in Lagos are below the age of 35 and even the retirees, how much
are they paying? They are on pension. So, you have to go through your
nose and you want to be as compassionate as possible that in a
recession, you don’t overtax people.”
The Governor said it was time for a convergence between civic
obligations and the ability of government to build trust by using taxes
of citizens judiciously, just assured that his administration, within
the available resources, would continue to invest in infrastructure and
deliver good governance to make life comfortable and easier for the
people.
“What I am saying is that there must be a convergence between
civic obligations and the ability of government to build trust and be
able to tell people that you know what, the little that you are giving
me, I will use it judiciously. When I use it judiciously and you see it
overtime, trust me, if you pay more, I will do more.
“Obviously, the vision is there, the plan is there but again it
is not driven by anything than the citizens themselves and the area
that we need improvement is for citizens to have trust or confidence
that the taxes they are paying will be returned back in terms of
infrastructure but I can tell you that I am also concerned; I see a lot
of things I don’t like but I am inhibited by the amount of money I
have,” Governor Ambode said.
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