By Oye Chukwujekwu,
Asaba
Delta State Board of Internal Revenue will flag off the collection of tax from informal sector on April 24, 2017.
The board disclosed this during a press briefing at its Asaba office.
The Commissioner for Finance, Delta State, Olorogun David Edevbie, said that each person in the informal sector would pay N1,000 per month based on the provision of the presumptive tax regime.
He explained that payments could be made daily depending on the payment pattern agreed with the tax payer.
He discloseed that the state government generates revenue through two major sources, the allocation from Federal Government and the Internal Generated Revenue, adding that the economic viability of a state is reflected partly on the amount of revenue it is able to generate within the state, stressing that Delta State gets more of its revenue from the formal sector that is about 30% of citizens.
“So if the informal complies, the fund generated could be enough to sought out salaries,” the commissioner said.
He pointed out that over a time, the state has realized that the majority of the members of the sector are not captured within the tax-net, and is laying much emphasis on correcting this perceived anomaly,” adding that they had identified associations and unions as the pivot to generating significant collections from the informal sector, the board shall work directly with the leadership of all these groups in a bid to get their members’ buy-in which should eventually generate a multiplier effect in tax collection in the near medium to long term.
He further stated that the process of implementation, tax officers would visit all these groups in their respective locations for an online registration, they would be given unique code that must be presented when making payments in the banks which is used to update records, stressing that the leadership of each association or union would be expected to collect the group’s contribution and remit at intervals to the state government account in the designated banks.
He said that the state government has provided several social services which only current tax payers would benefit, adding that failure to comply with the above policy will bring serious prosecution in the court of law.
