The Students of Taxation and Revenue Law, 2021/2022 set (TAX CLUB) in the Department of Private and Property Law, Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State, visited the Headquarters of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Ondo State Internal Revenue Service (ODIRS) among other places, as part of their fieldwork and learning processes beyond the school environment.
Dr. Joseph Aremo, the Head of Public and International Law who led the Students on the visit, addressed officials of the Ondo State Internal Revenue Service (ODIRS), telling them that members of the Elizade University TAX CLUB were final year students full of dreams to become tax Consultants. He stated the future of the country revolves around tax and commended the leadership of the service for running the Revenue House with professionalism and efficiently.
As he put it, “We want to show people that lawyers can do as much as accountants do because revenue generation is empowered by, and is all about, law”.
Another lecturer in the team, Mrs. Anthonia Oloko, spoke after Dr. Aremo and emphasised the importance of students engaging practically with aspects of what they are taught in the theoretical curricula. In her view, taxation sounds rather technical and complex to students, thereby necessitating the practical contacts and engagements with tax officials in order to bring the complexities down to earth.
In his address of Welcome, the Executive Chairman of Ondo State Internal Revenue Service, ODIRS, Mr. Tolu Adegbie, revealed that the amount the Service generated grew steadily from N10.9 billion in 2017 to N30.8 billion in 2021. This growth, he noted, was possible because the service improved on the old ways of revenue generation by moving from analogue to digital forms of revenue collection in order maintain global best practices. This led to tremendous improvements of the ease and efficiency in revenue generation.
The chairman noted the particular case of N200 Million Naira, which was generated in 2021 from people staying in the government forest reserve, which was a completely different approach from the usual way of chasing them away and destroying their property. According to the Chairman, the agency generated N6 billion outside the normal revenue scope to build the Revenue House they now occupy.
Adegbie also noted that the future of revenue generation lies in developing the necessary laws as a means of strengthening revenue generation.
He further said that the ODIRS runs a youth friendly and efficient system with ICT capacity and functional legal department where young people are given a free hand to operate to drive the dream of the service.
“If the law says it, we would enforce it. Two weeks ago, we locked up three hotels and two event centers for not paying consumption tax. Everyone was calling up and down and I said, no, we got court orders and it was locked up by the Court bailiff.”
”So what you are doing as students is very important, when it comes to taxation, the law is the basis of what we do here,” he said.
The Excursion team also visited two tax-paying institutions, ShopRite and Sunview Hotel, in Akure.
OLALEREPOPOOLA, a student in the team, said that the excursion was an eye opener to him and his colleagues and had significantly improved what they learnt in class.
Popoola said he hoped for more practical engagements like Taxation and Revenue Law trips, pointing out that, “From the trip, we gathered suggestions for the legislative houses for a better taxation system in Nigeria.”
