The Oyo State Internal Revenue Service (OYIRS), has vow to commence the prosecution of tax evaders and offenders in the state from Wednesday, August 17, 2016.
The Special Adviser of the Board for Oyo State Internal Revenue Services, Biyi Oloko who was accompanied by the Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Toye Arulogun disclosed this on Thursday while addressing journalist in Ibadan.
Oloko said:” The Oyo State Internal Revenue Service has now put in place a data bank on tax defaulters and is now embarking on an enforcement and prosecution drive that will take full advantage of the provisions of the tax laws to apprehend and prosecute tax defaulters. The Oyo State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice will through a Rapid Tax Prosecution Process commence prosecution of tax defaulters in Oyo State without further notice.
“The Oyo State government through the Oyo State Internal Revenue Service (OYIRS), has put all the necessary machineries in place to ensure the enforcement of the tax laws and wishes to advise all erring taxpayers to comply forthwith and ensure immediate payment of any outstanding taxes, fines and levies. The full weight of the law will be brought to bear on taxable persons who fail to comply.”
According to him, the government has set up a joint enforcement team with the local government in order to ensure a harmonised approach to the enforcement of the tax laws of both the State and local government.
Also, in order to block leakage in revenue collection, Oloko disclosed that the state government has adopted electronic collection of revenues ( POS) at all revenue points in the state.
He urged all tax payers not to make any cash payments to any individual other than directly into the designated revenue accounts in any of the collecting banks.