Lagos denies drop in IGR to N7b

LAGOS State government has denied that its monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) crashed from about N23 billion to N7 billion.

It was gathered that  Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) Chairman Olufolarin Ogunsanwo met with his workers on Wednesday to state his plans for the agency.

Sources said Ogunsanwo lamented at the parley that the 1,200 audit workers were not effective. He threatened that if things do not change, he might reduce the staff strength to 500.

He was reported to have blamed workers for the monthly decrease in IGR to N7 billion, and threatened to retain only workers with accounting background.

It was learnt civil servants became jittery when the news filtered into the government secretariat.

Workers feared that over 50 per cent of the workforce could be sacked, following the alleged drop in IGR.

But Ogunsanwo, who refused to state the present IGR, told reporters on telephone that the IGR was on the increase.

He said: “At the meeting, we did not discuss IGR. The meeting was not even held at the CBD. We did not mention any such thing at the meeting. There was never revenue drop.

“Everything about our IGR is intact by the special grace of God. The only thing I can tell you was that as at this time last month, what we collected is far higher than what we collected in the last months.”

He said everyone was committed to the economic prosperity of the state, adding that people would voluntarily pay taxes if they had confidence in the system.