Oyo Government Enforces Tax Clearance Certificate as Precondition for Business Operations
Olubunmi Osoteku
In its bid to ensure seamless revenue generation, the Oyo State Government has mandated all Ministries, Departments, Agencies(MDAs), parastatals, Local Government Councils, institutions of government, or any government official to henceforth not recognise, accept, or use any trade/professional license for official purpose without a valid tax clearance certificate of the holder of such trade/professional license.
The Executive Chairman, Oyo State Internal Revenue Service (OYIRS), Mr Adebowale Awakan, disclosed this in a meeting with all the revenue-generating MDAs of the government.
He noted that there had been a continuous violation of the provision of Section 85 of The Personal Income Tax Act, Cap P8 LFN 2004, (as amended), and Section 40(5)(a) of the Revenue Administration Law of Oyo State, 2015, (as amended), and the consequential loss of revenue to the government.
Awakan commended the effort of Governor Seyi Makinde, saying the governor had not relented in fulfilling his promises to the people of the state despite the economic situation of the country, but was willing to do even more in as much as the people were ready to cooperate with him by performing their civic duty of regular and prompt payment of their taxes to the government.
He revealed that the continuous violation of revenue laws and the consequential loss of revenue is what necessitated the meeting with all the revenue generating MDAs of the government, and consequently the compulsory enforcement of the use of a valid Tax Clearance Certificate by them in their subsequent dealings with financial institutions, business owners, professional bodies, e.t.c.
Noting that there was a publication to intimate the public of the development, the Chairman called for maximum cooperation of all the MDAs as the board leverages the services being rendered by them to the public to generate income for the government.
He concluded that the duty of the board is to monitor and coordinate the revenue generation of all MDAs, adding that tax payment had now been made easy and everyone could do it on their phone by downloading “Revenue Mobile” on playstore powered by ICMA and follow the steps.
