CIVIL RESPONSIBILITY: Osun Begins Sensitisation Campaign On Tax Payment

The Government of Osun on Thursday said it had launched a sensitisation campaign to encourage payment of tax by residents.
Mr Femi Balogun, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Internal Revenue Service, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) in Osogbo.
“Government sees the need to be proactive about the issue of tax so that our people can get to know what they stand to benefit from paying tax. It is also comfortable for us to go to the streets to educate our people on why they have to be part of positive change and contribute to the efforts of government. Apart from being a source of revenue for government, it is also a way of ensuring involvement in governance and developments,” he said.
Balogun also said the sensitisation campaign was necessary to discourage tax evasion especially among business men and women.
He said revenue officers had been trained and equipped on how to approach traders on matters relating to tax, adding that it was imperative for people to see tax payment as their responsibility to the state.
“We have carried out a street sensitisation programme at the popular Oke-fia market and this campaign will be taken to other major markets in the capital and other towns. Our people are responsible, what we are doing now is to let them see reason why they have to be part of development. Tax payment is not punitive but a way of having a say in government,’’ he said.
(NAN)