By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan.
Oyo State Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr Toye Arulogun on Wednesday said Governor Abiola Ajimobi, and all members of the state executive council are to be paying property tax on their private buildings.
The Commissioner who dropped this hint in Ibadan at a press conference declared that the governor and all members of the state executive council have up till July 15 to pay the tax.
Mr Arulogun declared that the payment was to kick start aggressive revenue generation to shore up Oyo State dwindling internally generated revenue, saying, the evaluation and collection of property tax would begin from the private residence of Governor Ajimobi.
“The State Executive Council resolved during today’s (Wednesday) meeting that due to the dwindling allocation to the state from the Federation Account, the government of Oyo State would embark upon a more aggressive revenue drive. Members of the state executive council and other political functionaries have agreed that all dues and taxes derivable from their salaries would henceforth be drawn from source, starting from July this year,” he said.
According to him, the state government had commenced the process for an aggressive revenue drive that would witness the collection of land use charge, revenue and taxes on properties and businesses located within the state.
The Commissioner pointed out that any member of the state executive council whose tax had not been paid up to date would have such money deducted from source before other members of the public were dragged into the tax net.
Mr Arulogun however assured the people of the state that the government would soon embark on door-to-door advocacy and enlightenment campaign to sensitize members of the public about the new tax and payment regime before hitting the roads.
“Government has decided that property located within the state must be taxed and it will start with the personal house of the governor. Members of the state exco have been given up to July 15 to comply with the payment. We want to set god example for others.”
Special adviser to the Governor on Internal Revenue, Mr. Biyi Oloko in his comment stressed that all self employed individuals in the state would be dragged into Personal Income Tax net stressing that all residents in the state would be expected to have completed payment of their Personal Income tax by the end of March every year.
“There would be re-certification programme of landed property across the state called Land Used Charge to boost the state’s financial base and while doing this, people should be assured of smooth payment as Point of Service (POS) machines are already in all our offices for easy payment. We are using these methods to guard against leakages and it would engender electronic payment system that makes cashless transaction easier.”
Mr Oloko disclosed that all property in the state had been enumerated and payment of taxes would be enforced through the issuance of Certificate of Occupancy, adding that tax offices had been opened across the 33 local government councils in the state.
