The all-out efforts of Ondo State Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, to tackle hardship and stave off difficulties by scaling up the Internally Generated Revenue yielded positive results as the State and Local Government Areas in Ondo shared a total sum of 110,000,000 million revenue collected on land use charge from July to December.
The Chairman of Ondo State Internal Revenue Service, Tolu Adegbie, disclosed this during the official presentation of cheques to the 18 local government areas in Akure, the State capital.
Adegbie explained that the state and Local Governments have three areas of partnership in terms of revenue collection, which he mentioned as: “Land Use Charge, Radio and Television rate and Sales of Taxis and Buses tickets”.
He described Gov. Akeredolu as a strong adherent of tax harmonisation, saying the Govenor had directed the increase in the LGAs’ percentage of the sharing formula from 20% to 30%.
The Chairman added that the LGAs received N32.5million from the total money collected from July to December this year, while the state got 72.5million naira and the remaining difference went to administrative charges.
He enjoined the people of the state to pay their Land Use Charge, revealing that government is using the proceeds for the betterment of the state.
According to him, the ODIRS had broken the record of Land Use Charge for the year 2021 by collecting N250,000,000 for the year 2021 as the highest amount ever collected on Land Use Charge in the history of Ondo State, recalling that the state and local governments have earlier shared N135,000,000 million Land Use Charge in the first six months of the year “January to June” where the LGs got N40.5 million and state parted with N94.5 Million. Making total of N250,000,000 Million naira shared from January to December this year.
However, a cheque of N15, 000,000 collected as radio and television rate was presented to 18 local government areas, while a total sum of 27,000,000 has also been paid to them from the sales that emanated from taxis and buses tickets.
Adegbite also said Radio and Television collection are strictly within the purview of Local Governments which state did not have any share from, adding that the 27,000,000 million naira has been paid to the end of November this year.
Impressed with the unprecedented feats, the newly appointed Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Adegboyega Adefarati, commended Governor Akeredolu for his developmental strides in the phase of economy and all round development been witnessed in the Sunshine State.
He also lauded the ODIRS chairman, for turning the state internal revenue services around for the best the state has witnessed since inception.
The Commissioner charged the LGAs to also look into their respective domains to see how the state could generate more funds and boost its economy.
He assured them of robust partnership, saying the state would work with them for efficiency and effectiveness.
Responding, the Chairman, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) Ondo state, Mr Augustine Oloruntogbe, said the Governor deserved all the praises being showered on him, adding that he was a man driven by divinity.
Oloruntogbe also appreciated the new commissioner, Adegboyega Adefarati, saying his emergence as the commissioner came with many good tidings.
He further extend his appreciation to the ODIRS Chairman, Adegbie, for his professionalism and bringing new positive waves to revenue generation in the state.
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