The Lagos State Inland Revenue Service (LIRS) on Thursday said it was ready to start collecting Value Added Tax once the court okays it.
The LIRS Assistant Director of Taxes, LIRS, Adetola Olanrewaju, said this in response to a question during the LCCI’s ‘SMEGroup Workshop on Assisting MSMEs with Regulatory Compliance’.
“The case is in the court and there will be another hearing today. Lagos State is prepared for VAT collection, but any matter still in the court is not for public consumption,” Olanrewaju said.
Olanrewaju who represented the LIRS chairman, Hamzat Subair, at the event, added that, “We’ve been collecting state tax before now, and we’ve been collecting occupancy tax. So, we are prepared for VAT collection, but we are waiting on the judgement.
“The LIRS has the manpower, staff, we are qualified academically and professionally. We are prepared for the job.”
When asked why the Lagos VAT law did not exempt small and medium-sized enterprises from VAT he said, “The Lagos State House of Assembly said they will look into it. If there is need for any adjustment, it will be made. But what I am sure of is that the pharmaceuticals are exempted, but where there are issues presently, it will be considered in public interest.”
When asked whom companies in the state will pay their September VAT remittance to, Olanrewaju said, “As a government, we cannot act out of the court. As far as we are concerned, we have to wait for the judgement of the court as a state.”
A three-man panel of Appeal Court justices led by Justice Hassan Tsammani had ordered all parties in the VAT tussle to maintain status quo and refrain from taking any action that would give effect to the judgment of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt.
The court ordered that the status quo ante bellum be maintained.
