http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201103076471751


The Lagos State Government has opposed plans by the Federal Government through the National Tax Policy to reduce income tax rates.


It said such a move would adversely affect the revenue of the state government without giving it any opportunity to make up for the loss.


The state government is also seeking the alteration of the present Revenue Allocation Formula to enable states and local governments to get a bigger share.


These demands formed a seven-point communiqué issued on Friday at the end of the sixth Executive/Legislative parley on ‘Good Governance and Strategic Planning’ in Lagos.


The state government also sought the amendment of the Value Added Tax Act to preserve the revenues exclusively for states and local governments. It said this would enable them to cope with the increasing challenges of governance.


In the communiqué read at the end of the session by a member of the House of Representatives from Surulere Federal Constituency I, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, the state government argued that even though the National Tax Policy was seeking an increase in indirect tax rates and decrease in income tax rates, experience had shown that only the rate reduction could easily achieved.


The parley recalled the crisis generated by the attempt to increase VAT rates through the VAT Order 2007, saying it clearly illustrated the difficulty that would be encountered should there be an attempt to increase indirect taxes.


Furthermore, it noted that despite the National Assembly reserving the legislative authority over Personal Income Tax, the importance of the state government cannot be jettisoned as the PIT revenues belong exclusively to the state.


“It is important for states to be given an enabling environment to collect all forms of sales and consumption taxes as these are not on the exclusive legislative list and are regarded as residual matters for the State House of Assembly,” the summit declared.


In his keynote address, Governor Babatunde Fashola argued that the visible progress being made by the state was largely due to its commitment to an effective tax policy and budget implementation in the last three years.

This clearly shows Fashola is anti the common man. He just wants to tax them out of their pants.

All he asks for is money, money, money - is he an Ibo man who loves money?

LOL

Good move by Lagos State.

Federal government doesn't need to interfere in local taxation anyway. They should keep their damn noses out of it.

The state government is also seeking the alteration of the present Revenue Allocation Formula to enable states and local governments to get a bigger share.

I cosign on this as well. Governor's Forum also seems to be behind it. In fact, shouldn't. . . everyone be behind it?

The state government also sought the amendment of the Value Added Tax Act to preserve the revenues exclusively for states and local governments. It said this would enable them to cope with the increasing challenges of governance.

This would be absolutely WONDERFUL.

I'd additionally suggest that Lagos gets control of some of the port revenue coming through its coast.

So that Fashola can eat more bucks.

Time2Think:

So that Fashola can eat more bucks.

Well at least his infrastuctural achievements in lagos are visible.

^^
Good move, but the downside is that greater percentage of Lagos tax money ends up in the foreign accounts of you-know-who

[s]Well at least his infrastuctural achievements in lagos are visible.[/s]

I can see you are one of the deceived.
When a man is doing 10% of what we voted him to do and you all are praising him. I still cant understand Nigerians.

GMcompere:

[s]Well at least his infrastuctural achievements in lagos are visible.[/s]

I can see you are one of the deceived.
When a man is doing 10% of what we voted him to do and you all are praising him. I still cant understand Nigerians.

If you say we should not [i]appreciate [/i]his efforts 'cuz its simply 10%, then what will we say about other governors who ain't even doing 'jack' but are consuming their state revenues without thinkin twice

Please, don't call it deception! When a man has done well, tell him he has, I am not saying his performance is 100% and has nothing more to achieve, No! All I am saying is that he has done well!
There is definitely room for improvement but till date, can someone name a state guv'nor in the past 11years of democracy who has done 5% of his achievements in Lagos state?

hackney:

Well at least his infrastuctural achievements in lagos are visible.

baby chimp - so he should keep eating money? Monkey

At least he isn't using tax payers money to send ex-area boys abroad for 3-4 years under the pretext of "education" like our president and his PDP party.

we see what GEJ has done in his past 9months in office! we see what PDP FIGURE HEADS IN OTHER STATES HAVE DONE!

its not that hard for Fashola to get these things done. All he has to do is to tell GEJ , ''i will vote for you and get you 50votes if you sign it''. . .presto our Clueless GEJ will sign.He signs anything just for votes nowadays.

reindeer:

its not that hard for Fashola to get these things done. All he has to do is to tell GEJ , ''i will vote for you and get you 50votes if you sign it''. . .presto our Clueless GEJ will sign.He signs anything just for votes nowadays.

Really?

If a bulk of the tax i pay ends in Tinubu`s foreign acct., i`ll appreciate a cut "ANYHOW".

I WILL LIKE A DRASTIC CUT IN THE INCOME TAX RATE, COS A GREAT CHUNK OF WHAT WE R PAYING NOW ENDS UP IN TINUBU'S ACCOUNT. HE SHOULD BE THE MOST CORRUPT POLITICIAN IN NIGERIA BY NOW. ALPHA BETA CONSULTING, TV & RADIO CONTENETAL. ORIENTAL HOTEL ETC. SHINE UR EYES,

If my tax remain on the facilities and i can see it "ko ma lobeee"

As long as Tinubu keeps getting his cocaine,fraud and fake certificate soiled hands on a large chunk of Lagos tax monies,then little dividends will continually be delivered to the tax payers compared to what they're forced to cough out

Reduce Tax jor. Haba. We no dey jand now. All the roads are bad. Where the tax money dey go? "Tax payers money in action". One day,

oludy:

Reduce Tax jor. Haba. We no dey jand now. All the roads are bad. Where the tax money dey go? "Tax payers money in action". One day,

You want his Godfather(Tinubu the most corrupt guy in naija as at today)To forsake him?

Its a fact that Fashola is doing more than some other governors but the tax in lagos na die o. Anytime i see my pay slip like this, i want to cry. My tax is almost if not more than 10% of my salary.
After dem don remove tax, person go pay nepa bill, still buy fuel for generator.

Nija, i hail thee.

reindeer:

its not that hard for Fashola to get these things done. All he has to do is to tell GEJ , ''i will vote for you and get you 50votes if you sign it''. . .presto our Clueless GEJ will sign.He signs anything just for votes nowadays.

he don sign sumfin for u cuz of vote b4 ni Haba! NLs and egxajirations!!!

I've no problem reducing the adminstrative costs of collection the taxes. This will reduce the take of Alpha Beta consultancy, which is reportedly controlled by Tinubu.

But attempts by the FG to interfere with Lagos's ability to collect tax? That is a different matter entirely, and must be resisted.