Dr Adesoji Adedokun has been decorated as the 10th chairman of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Ibadan and District Society.
Dr Oyefemi Oyetunji, who was the guest speaker at the investiture ceremony, urged state governments to evolve new revenue generation methods.
This, he said, would help the federating units to survive the hard times caused by the current global pandemic.
Oyetunji, who is a lecturer at The Polytechnic, Ibadan, described taxation as a tool for poverty reduction and sustainable development.
Citing an instance, he said Oyo State needed to evolve new progressive taxes to generate revenue for anti-poverty programmes.
He listed progressive taxes to include high-income earners taxes, estate taxation, tax on companies with extreme gaps between the Chief Executive Officers and their workers, high-end real estate tax and interest tax.
Oyetunji said the taxes would be used by the state in tackling inequality, child and family poverty, aged poverty and working-age poverty.
The lecturer urged CITN to engage relevant committees of the state House of Assembly to enact appropriate laws that would engender sustainable development in the state through taxation.
He said, “The state government’s concern should be how to reduce the level of poverty. New progressive taxes are needed in Oyo State to generate the much-needed revenue to embark on anti-poverty programmes.
“The wealthy and high-income earners would have to pay higher taxes than the poor.”
According to Adedokun, CITN under his watch would collaborate with the Oyo State Government and other relevant stakeholders for progress.
