States feel recession burden over governors lack of political will to develop IGR —Economic expert

A lecturer in the faculty of Economics, University of Ibadan (UI), Dr Adetunji Babatunde, on Tuesday, said many state governments continue to feel the burden of recession owing to lack of political will of governors to soar their state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) base.

Babatunde rendered this view while speaking as one of the resource persons at the workshop of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung for members of the Oyo State House of Assembly, held in Ibadan, on Tuesday.

He averred that state governments’ lazily over-relied in allocation from the federal government, were lax in implementing tax laws and allowed tax evasion and avoidance by taxable entities.

Babatunde therefore called on states to expand their tax net to bring in the formal and informal sectors, review of dated tax rates to reflect present realities, increased tax payer education and compliance to the payment and collection of withholding tax.

Especially, he mentioned that state governments should restructure their IGR drive by taking a cue from Lagos state in effective models of tax collection and automated processes of tax payment.

Speaking on conflict management in the legislature, Professor Tajudeen Akanji of the University of Ibadan harped on the imperativeness for legislators to be imbued with good communication skill to be able to effectively function with the other arms of government for good governance.

In his remarks, Speaker of the state house of Assembly, Honourable Micheal Adeyemo decried poor return rate of legislators after every four years as affecting stability of the legislature in performance of her duties.

Adeyemo also noted that legislators must be imbued with requisite knowledge to prevent cum manage conflicts in their relations with the executive.

Resident Representative, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Mrs Hildergard Behrendt-Kigosi, avowed the need for states to be creative to improve their IGR base, noting that states should optimise the potentials in their domains.

She urged legislators to live up to their responsibilities of ensuring the executive implement laws that better the lot of residents of their states.