29th December, 2012
Nigeria’s Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola Raji said his government would soon swoop on 370 high net-worth residents of the state who have been tax dodgers.
At a year end ceremony at the Yoruba Tennis Club, Fashola disclosed that his government has compiled a list of 370 high net worth tax defaulters, who owe the state’s IRS between N2Million and N100Million. He did not however disclose the tax cheats
“There are prosperous people who refuse to pay taxes”, said the governor often the butt of jokes for not playing with tax matters in the state.
Fashola said his government intends to collect all such outstanding monies and appealed to all such tax defaulters to pay voluntarily.
Governor also seized the occasion to give a report on the impact of the State Traffic Law, sometimes violated by commercial motor-cycle riders and the validity of which was resolved in the government’s favour by a High court.
The Governor said the enactment of the law in July has seen a big rise in the number of people attending the Drivers Institutes for certification. From a few, attendance had by September risen to 13,322, he said.
“Out of the number, 11,986 had very good vision while about 1,346 of them which represented about 10 percent were driving with impaired vision and constituted dangers to themselves and other road users but have had their eye defects corrected”.
The Governor also revealed that at the end of September, accidents involving motorcyclists dropped by 18.7 percent. By October, there was no reported case of motorcycle accident death.
He spoke about his government efforts to boost electricity supply in the metropolis, its food programme and also the planned expansion of Bus Rapid Transit BRT routes.
Among the ones on board is the one being being promoted by the Lagos Island Local Government.
The government, he said, is also designing another route on the Lekki -Epe Expressway that will go through the Island and go back through the TBS and Federal Palace Hotel to Lekki.
The expanded Mile 12 Ikorodu road, on completion, will have a BRT lane like the Badagry Lagos Expressway, which will also have a Lagos Light Rail line.
His government, he said, is at present building new homes on no fewer than 15 sites across the state. The locations are Agbowa, Surulere, Ilupeju, Shitta, Mushin, Ogba, IKorodu,, Igando, Badagry, Shangotedo.
He said government also plans to start work in Ijora where it would deliver 1008 apartments and reconstruct the Adeniji Adele Housing Estate into 2,069 housing units, adding that sometimes next year, the government would commence the allocation of the completed apartments, stressing that only taxpaying individuals would benefit.
The Governor who also spoke on the economy of Lagos traffic said recent investigation has shown that there is about One Trillion Naira moving about in that held up traffic as people engage in buying and selling.
He added that while it is very tempting to regard people who sell in traffic as poor people, investigations have however shown otherwise as there is even a company that makes a turnover of N4Billion selling little things that people eat in traffic.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Chairman of the Yoruba Tennis Club, Bolaji Cole appealed to leaders and politicians to work in unison and evolve people oriented policies such that improvement can be attained in the living conditions of the citizens.
The event was attended by members of the State Executive Council including the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mr Lanre Babalola, Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Engr Taofik Tijani, Special Duties, Dr Wale Ahmed and distinguished personalities from all works of life.
SIGNED