By Damiete Braide
Revenue committees in the 20 local government and 38 council development areas of Lagos State have promised to adopt professional standards of the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) to improve collection and increase internally generated revenue.
This was the resolution of stakeholders in the revenue collection system in local governments at a workshop to deliberate on the prospects of professionalising revenue collection in the local government areas and local council development areas.
Sponsored by the LIRS, it featured contributions from representatives of the conference of council chairmen, the Local Government Service Commission, the body of council managers, council treasurers, human resources officers, and chairmen of revenue committees.
LIRS chairman, Mr. Ayo Subair, represented by the station manager, Ikeja, Mr. Segun Tijani highlighted provisions of the Constitution that empower the local governments to collect revenue.
Citing the Fourth Schedule and Sections 162 in the 1999 Constitution and the Local Government (Approved Levies) Law of 2010, Subair said the laws mandate local governments to act professionally in the estimation, assessment, and collection of revenues.
According to him, section 6 (4) of the Local Government Approved Levies Law states that “the revenue agent to be appointed by the local government authority should be a chartered tax practitioner or have as the head of its tax unit, a chartered practitioner.”
To further protect revenue collection, Subair enlightened the participants that the House of Assembly enacted the State and Local Government Public Finance and Management Law with the provision in section 57 for a Local Government Revenue Committee.
He said the failure of local governments to manage revenue collection professionally created a lot of problems for the state government and led to the enactment of laws that made the state the agent of the councils in collecting land use charges, signage, and advertising, and lately the management of parks.
Despite the challenges, Subair recommended nine policies to transform the council areas to take professional charge of their revenue so that they can meet the expectations of the citizens.
These include training, internship, compliance with due process, provision of incentives for meeting targets, badges for easier identification of revenue staff, adoption and application of technology, the introduction of standards for engaging consultants, and rapid career progression.