By: Tolulope Oluwole
The Ondo State Internal Revenue Service (ODIRS) yesterday Friday July 1st, 2022 presented two cheques of sum of fifteen million naira (N15,000,000) and thirty million naira (N30,000,000) to the eighteen local governments in Ondo state as their own share of Land Use Charge as well as Radio And Television License Fees.
The revenues covered from December 2021 to May, 2022.
The Land Use Charge Sharing Between The State Government And Local Government Areas is put at N104 Million on 70 to 30 Percentage ratio while RADIO AND TV License Fees is N15million.
The Executive Chairman of ODIRS, Mr Tolu Adegbie stated that the Revenue Agency was focussing on revenue generation and can see when money is being spent wisely. “You will recall that local governments were being given tractors by the Governor (Oluwarotimi Akeredolu) and that time, they needed funds to run those tractors, it was on that basis that we anchored the request to increase from 20% to 30% and it was approved by the Governor”.
Adegbie explained that ODIRS has received a lot of cooperation from each of the local governments, they give timely and accurate information.
He pointed that a total of N104 million naira was generated between December 2021 and May 2022 of which the state government got N70 million, the local government got N30 million while ODIRS which is the revenue collector will take N4 million naira.
In a remark on behalf of local government Chairmen, the Chairman of Association of Local Governments Of Nigeria, Hon Augustine Oloruntogbe who received the cheques on behalf on all the local governments, expressed his happiness over the development, commending the laudable efforts of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu and ODIRS in ensuring the revenues come to the third tier of the government on regular basis.
Oloruntogbe said “Mr Governor is always thinking about the general interest, not his personal interest, he drove this policy and he made sure that it was transparently delivered, he made us time sign and MOU with tbe ODIRS in 2019, about percentage and we later came back to him that we needed a review and he have us the order to”.
While soliciting for a review of the sharing formula to allow the local government get 40% of generated fees, the ALGON Chairman said that the local government is an off taker to state government and needs to be empowered as most problems being faced at the state level will be reduced.
“The Governor has mandated that the Local Governments to go into security partnership, we need money to fund the vigilantee groups that will be set up for it to be effective,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Chief Segun Odusanya noted that Nigeria is passing through difficult times and a lot of things are begging for attention.
The PS stressed that the funds will further help in provision of needed demands at the grassroots.
