Nigeria: CITN commends Lagos for digitising revenue administration process

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THE Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, has commended the efforts of Lagos State Government in simplifying revenue administration process in the state with the launch by the Lagos State Revenue Portal (LRP).

In a statement signed by the 16th President/Chairman of Council, Samuel Agbeluyi, the CITN commends the initiative noting that it was critical to engendering confidence in the fiscal management and governance practices of the State Government particularly revenues generated internally.

The Institute noted that the launch of the portal with its leverage on technology, has the potentials of improving tax and other regulatory payments compliance levels as simplifying the process would result in improved revenue collections for the State.

“The situation prevalent in most states is that multiple agencies approach taxpayers and business owners with multiple bills which creates a burden of compliance and increases the cost of doing business. This leads to revenue loss and low collections.

“The LRP aggregates all these bills under one platform for ease of payments and administration thereby enhancing the process for the taxpayer and the government.

The body therefore urged other subnationals within the federation to take cue from this novel initiative by the Lagos State Government and other states that have embarked on similar schemes, while noting that the initiative would not only promote revenue reporting and accounting but fiscal prudence and enhance the delivery of democratic dividend to the populace.

“This is also a development that will make revenue collection in tandem with global best practice, facilitate ease of doing business, monitoring of revenues, strategic decision making and will promote a professionalized and efficient revenue administration regime,” the statement said.