By Fatima Muraina

The Ondo state Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has been applauded for creating a platform to generate revenue for the 18 local government areas in the state.
The state chairman of ALGON, Mr Atikase Otito declared this in a telephone interview with The Hope in Akure, the Ondo state capital.
Otito who is also the Chairman of Ilaje local government area confirmed that the sum of N12 million payment for television and radio was remitted to the local governments by the Ondo state Internal Revenue Service (ODIRS) as well as another N100 million remitted as land use charge.
His words: “It is a new initiative by the Akeredolu-led administration. It is a welcome development and a way to boost our revenue to get some resources to build infrastructures”.
He noted that the local government will get 20 percent of the land use charge while the state will get 80 percent.
Otito promised that the money remitted would judiciously be used as he noted that such money was normally spent on capital projects, but added that part of the money got would be used to boost payment of salaries which had been affected by COVID-19 pandemic.
“Where we have to pay 30 percent of salaries or 50 percent, we add it to salary to boost it to 80 percent because revenue has dwindled due to COVID-19 pandemic which has affected the revenue of the state and had affected payment of salaries”, he said.
It would be recalled that the Land Use Charge Law was passed by the Ondo State House of Assembly in 2014 and assented to the then Governor.
The implementation commenced immediately but no funds was shared within the 18 Local Government areas of the State until 2018.
The Chairman of Ondo State Internal Revenue Service (ODIRS), Mr. Tolu Adegbie had earlier stated that the sum of N317.6m less initial set up was shared between the state and local government in 2018 and 2019 and the sum of N100m accrued so far in 2020 was shared on Monday.