By Iyabo Adebisi
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has urged members of the Joint Tax Board, JTB and other stakeholders in the revenue generation sector in the country to adopt a humane strategy and understanding before co-opting the informal sectors into its tax net.
Declaring open the 157th meeting of the JTB held in Ibadan, with the theme – Taxation of the Informal Sector: Potentials and Challenges, Governor Makinde explained that the informal sector is the backbone of the local economy and should be engaged technologically for meaningful impact.
The governor called for an increase in production, knowledge, and skills to galvanise Nigerians toward transforming the nation’s natural resources and potential into economic prosperity.
Governor Makinde enjoined the stakeholders to consider modalities to deepen partnership with the informal sector, such that dragging them into the tax net would be based on understanding rather than enforcement.
Addressing the participants, the Chairman of the Joint Tax Board and Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Dr Zach Adedeji, warned against any attempt to add a tax burden on the poor and charged the meeting to focus on conceiving strategies to formalise the informal sector before any taxation attempt.
Earlier, Chairman of the Oyo State Internal Revenue Service Femi Awakan disclosed how the Seyi Makinde-led administration has drastically boosted the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR), noting that with the Oyo experience, there is no challenge too tough to surmount in widening the tax net of any economy.
The meeting of the Joint Tax Board of Nigeria, JTB, is usually a convergence to address tax-related matters, evolve a workable, effective and efficient tax system across the state and the federal government.
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