As the hardships of the outbreak of COVID-19 continue to bite harder on Nigeria’s economy, Ogun state government has recorded a sharp fall in the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
The state Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Wednesday disclosed that it generated the sum of N15.112 billion, representing 11.16 percent out of the projected figure of N135.4 billion as revenue between January and June, 2020.
The Agency Head, Mr. Adekunle Adeosun disclosed this while appearing before members of the state House of Assembly Committee on Finance and Appropriation.
The state IRS boss attributed the shortfall in the revenue drive to the adverse effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on the economy which according to him had caused a drastic reduction in tax payments by business owners and investors.
He noted that N15.112 billion generated within the said period was at a negative variance to the tune of N1.7 billion, when juxtaposed with the over N16.8 billion generated in the corresponding period in 2019.
Adeosun listed revenue sources of the agency within the period under review to include N14.585 billion from taxes and N526.776 million from licences.
He added 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.
Explaining 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.
The Committee, led by Hon. Olakunle Sobunkanla was assessing the level of 2020 budget implementation.
