Lagos State Governor,? Babatunde Fashola (SAN), yesterday, continued his? rendition of? account of his stewardship as he marked his 1,700 days in office.
He urged Lagosians to voluntarily pay their taxes in order to provide his administration the tool to implement its 2012 Budget.
The governor, who spoke at the LTV Blue Roof Multipurpose Hall, venue of the interactive session with different segments of the society,? said his administration was ready to execute the Budget if it was provided the critical tool which, he said was finance which could be raised through payment of taxes.
According to the Governor, “Our team is ready to implement a budget that was well planned in painstaking detail and to deliver on the critical areas of the budget, if we have the tools”, the Governor said and added, “the most useful tool, apart from peace and security, is finance. Therefore, voluntary payment of taxes is your obligation under our social contract and the sooner more citizens begin to accept that it is a non-negotiable obligation, the better for us all”.
Regretting “a? situation where only a comparatively low number of people approximately 2.5million people pay taxes that supports an economy of over 18 million people”, Governor Fashola , who described it as inequitable, declared, “ Everything must be done to correct it”, and stressed, however, that the rule did not apply to people who do not have jobs.
He said, “For the avoidance of doubts, anyone who has no income has no obligation to pay tax; but it is our duty to ensure that those who are in the working age of 25-60 years estimated to be about eight million people and who are in gainful employment or earn an income pay their taxes, so that the tax burden is equally distributed among citizens”.