By Tope Musowo
Lagos
Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly have adopted the resolution of the report on a proposed regulations on Hotel Occupancy and Restaurant Consumption (Fiscalization) Regulations, 2017.
The Regulations which includes the registration of electronic fiscal device, installation of fiscalization software and hardware, power to enter and inspect notifications of points of sale in the hotels and restaurant amongst others were scrutinized.
The Chairman of the 5-Man Ad hoc Committee on Finance, Oluyinka Ogundimu, who held series of meetings with the Commissioner for Finance and Chairman, Lagos State Internal Revenue Service stated that the regulations will bring about increase in the revenue drive accruable to the State and the installation of software and hardware for effective monitoring of sale transactions in hotels, restaurants and event centres.
According to Mr. Ashade, Commissioner for Finance, the importance of the regulation is to have the backing of law for easy implementation and also to help the State get the revenue as at when due, including the introduction of the fiscal electronic device which was due to the non-remittance of consumption tax by hotels.
Mr. Subair A., Chairman Lagos State Internal Revenue Service who correlated the position of the Mr. Ashade stated that the State Government is losing heavily in the area of consumption tax because of non-introduction of electronic device. He added that lots of advocacy and enlightenment programs will be needed to achieve the desired result.
Contributing to the issue, Hon. Tunde Braimoh, appealed that the resolution should be adopted as the resolution of the House this regulation is more than overdue and it is in line with modern trend.
To this end, the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, directed the Clerk of the House, Mr. Azeez Sanni to forward the approval of the Regulations to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.
