70% of budget to be funded with taxe - Gov. Fashola

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State said on Thursday that 70 per cent of the state’s 2014 budget of N489.6 billion would be funded with taxes.

The governor made the plan known at the 7th Lagos State Annual Stakeholders Conference on Taxation in Ikeja.

He said that the remaining 30 per cent would be financed through other sources, including the monthly federal allocation.

Fashola said taxation had been a veritable source of revenue to the state and that it had greatly helped to promote the state’s development.

“We have achieved a lot with taxation and it is better to state some facts here so that what the government and people of the state have achieved together can be better appreciated.

“In 1999, the budget of this state for the whole year was about N14 billion and at that time our internally generated revenue was just about N600 million.

“Last year, this state was able to budget half a trillion naira, specifically N507 billion and this year, we have a budget size of N489.6 billion.

“And about 70 per cent of that would be funded by the taxpaying people of this great state,” he said.

Fashola said the increasing mobilisation of tax resources ensured that the state relied less on federal allocations to meet her needs.

He thanked residents for making sustainable development possible in the state through payment of taxes.

The governor appealed to those evading taxes to shun the practice and urged them to join the train of development through tax payments.

This is a commendable move by the Lagos state government. Why other Governors in the country are crying wolf over the federal allocation, the Lagos state government is looking beyond federal allocation. We are expecting more states to take to Governor Fashola financial blue print.