Why Ondo’s IGR rising—Adegbie

By Fatima Muraina & Saheed Ibrahim
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Efforts of the Ondo State Board of Internal Revenue Service (ODIRS) have been yielding more fruits in the  recent time as over 200,000 tax payers  have been captured.

The service, which disclosed that it targets about one million tax payers out of the state’s 1.9 million taxable adults affirmed that this would be made possible going by the rate at which people now voluntarily pay their taxes.

The Chairman of ODIRS, Mr Tolu Adegbie who stated this in an interview with The Hope, maintained that the development was among factors responsible for the growth of the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from N700million to N2.2billion.

He also attributed the increase in IGR to the developmental strides of the Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu-led administration in every sector of the state economy.

Adegbie cited the service’s new  ultra modern office complex located along Igbatoro road in Akure as one of the projects embarked upon by the state government which have motivated many people to pay their taxes.

Adegbie also identified vibrancy in the tax system and  transparency, as part of reasons that ensured ease of tax payment and consequently boost the IGR of the state.

 He described the new building as a one-stop-shop, which has all the needed facilities to aid tax payment without any hassle.

His words: “The building is part of our overall restructuring process which you were told when we came in  2018. We said we needed to put in place planned programme of actions; what are the things we needed to do to drive revenue and move ODIRS forward. So relocating to the building is one of the things we needed to do. This is why it was put in the 2019 budget.

“So we believe that putting up a place like that, apart from being a legacy project of Mr Governor, it actually affords us more visibility, which we need. I can tell you that if you look at the cost of building the place, the two months of our revenue growth has covered that cost. So it is a very good business strategy for us.

“We have two banks there, so anybody can come in, you get your tax assessment, you go and pay in the bank, come back, get your TIN generation (Tax Identification Number), then you use that to get your e-receipt and you get whatever service you want to get.

 He noted that tax clearance is now done electronically.

The Chattered Accountant also said that the building has started attracting business owners, who have  been defaulting in their tax payment, to commence payment, one of which he said included a company that had not paid tax to the state in the last 40 years with the excuse that there was no vibrant system.

He also said that despite all the publicity done on social media and in the conventional media, a lot of tax payers had been complaining that they could not find the ODIR office, adding that the old office was built 25 years ago and could not meet the current digital operation of the agency

“ We are now running Wi-fi system. All our operations  are on Wi-fi. Wi-fi cannot penetrate the old office’s walls. So all the ICT infrastructure that we want to put in place, as done by our consultants, we could not implement any of them.

“So, we have almost 80 routers on this premises because the ICT infrastructure are weak and the walls are thick and we need to communicate,” he said.

The ODIRS Chairman emphasized that Ondo state government has a business tax-friendly system, adding that no business is overburdened with tax and he advised business owners to know how business taxation works in the state in order to avoid been defrauded.

“There are two kinds of companies. We have limited liability companies and we have enterprises. But unfortunately, most people register limited liability companies. If you have limited liability company, your tax regime goes to the FIRS. It is only enterprise that comes to us. Now for limited liability company, I will collect PAYE from you and I will collect Director’s income but I cannot collect Director’s income from you until you have spent at least one year.

“The problem we have is that people don’t do the right thing. A new person starts business; has not attended any seminar about the financing or book keeping and all of that, not knowing that if a tax man comes to you, you are not liable to pay tax for your first one year and that is if you only make an income and if you make an income, just declare.