By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Lagos, Nigeria’s richest state by far, and the fifth largest economy in Africa, has laid out plans for N60.31 billion internally generated revenue (IGR) to fund its N1.164 trillion budget for 2021.
IGR is apart from federal allocation Abuja disburses to states monthly from the federation account, which contains oil receipts and federal taxes.
By 2020, Lagos had been generating N50 billion IGR monthly, more than the total for 32 states put together.
Its IGR began to rise under former Governor Babatunde Fashola (2007-2015) who boosted it to about N30 billion, which was topped up to N50 billion by his successor, Akinwunmi Ambode (2015-2019).
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who took over the helms in 2019, is now racing to surpass the existing record by at least N10 billion.
Besides, Lagos is about to become an oil producing state, which will entitle it to share from the 13 per cent derivation allocated to oil states.
The quest for N60.318 billion monthly IGR was disclosed in Ikeja by Economic Planning and Budget Commissioner, Sam Egube, during a media briefing on the 2021 budget.
He said the IGR target is necessary to fund the 2021 budget, per reporting by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Components of 2021 budget
The budget, already passed by the state Assembly, has N702.935 billion voted for Capital Expenditure and N460.587 billion for Recurrent Expenditure.
The deficit of N192.494 billion is to be funded from a combination of internal and external loans, Egube said.
He added that expected Total Internally Generated Revenue (TIGR) for Year 2021 is N723.817 billion, with N60.318 billion generated monthly.
About 70 per cent of the TIGR (N512 billion) is expected to be contributed by the Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS).
“The total budget size is N1.164 trillion and will be funded from a total revenue estimate of N971.028 billion, comprising Total Internally Generated Revenue (TIGR) of N723.817 billion, capital Receipts of N71.811 billion and Federal Transfer of N175.400 billion,” Egube explained.
“We shall achieve this by expanding the tax net, simplifying the tax process, improving our transaction taxes and the appropriate use of technology in addition to improving the work environment, training and tools of our tax administration personnel.
“This will improve the efficiency in operations of all revenue-generating agencies.
“We believe that there are huge revenue-generating opportunities in the state: including real estates, transportation sectors and our markets generally, among others. We will continue to use data and intelligence to unravel revenue opportunities and leakages.”
Egube appealed to all residents of Lagos State to keep on fulfilling their civic responsibilities such as paying taxes as and when due, to ensure optimal budget performance.
