There Are Illegal Tax Collectors in Lagos

Babatunde Fowler, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lagos state Internal Revenue Service, LIRS

—Babatunde Fowler, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lagos state Internal Revenue Service, LIRS
By Esther Egeonu
Most Nigerians especially medium and small scale business owners and some multi-national companies often complain of double taxation by government. What is your take on this?
A lot of people have confused levies, charges and penalties as taxes and also a lot of individuals join union and association and they are asked to pay the levy either in the market or by the union they have joined. For example if the local government charge them a certain levy for being in the market and the association charges them another levy, basically it is a fee that is being paid as part of belonging to that association. When you have an issue of multiple or double taxation that means two tiers of government have charged an amount of the same tax. We found out that in Lagos a few individuals illegally charge people what they call taxes without having the authority to do so.
We also found out that a lot of these charges and levies have nothing to do with government. So in Lagos we do not really have any issue of double taxation.
Some individuals illegally engage in extortion in the name of tax drive. What is your organisation doing to curb this?
We’ll apprehend and have them arrested. A group of people have printed illegal fliers and tried to collect illegal taxes from individuals. We have put a one page advert in the newspapers to educate the public and enlighten them.
What are the problems that you have encountered so far in the course of this job?
When we were established there was a law that was passed by the House of Assembly which made us self accounting and also made the board autonomous meaning that we can recruit staff and we can terminate staff also, we can pay them a seperate salary scale different from civil service structure and we have been operating that way. We have also been able to share a new vision of the new board of Lagos state internal revenue with our staff. When it comes to staffing or service delivery, we have achieved a lot. But external challenges that we have which has now been addressesd was the resistance by residents of Lagos to pay tax. Part of our problem was that they were not used to paying taxes, they were not aware of the laws and nobody wants to pay tax. Some of them found the amount unacceptable but we have to bear in mind that Nigerians have the lowest tax rate in the west African subregion but because we are not used to paying taxes, if any addition is made, people found it unacceptable. This was our major challenge.
How can you rate the response of Lagosians to tax payment in the state?
There have been improvement but there is still room for improvement. I don’t want to compare Lagos to other states but I must say that residents of Lagos state have accepted tax as a part of life. They now understand the law concerning tax administration, they now understand the need to pay taxes and a lot of people are paying their taxes.
You were appointed chairman about five years ago and the government recently celebrated 100 days in office. What is the success story?
Well, I started under the leadership of Bola Tinubu, the former governor of Lagos state in November 2005 and since that time we have been able to educate residents of Lagos and indeed Nigerians regarding tax administration and on the need to pay tax. We have also been able to improve the amount of taxes and tax compliance within Lagos state for that same period of time.
Are there any challenges of funding the LIRS?
Basically we try as much as possible to provide efficient and customer oriented service and secondly we try to make sure that we collect all taxes as at when due which some times may include the enforcement of outstanding taxes. We try to make sure that we fulfil our primary role which is to fund the Laos state government.