Oyo Secures Legislative Framework for Tax Harmony, but Enforcement Gaps Persist at Term’s End

As the first term drew to a close in early 2023, the state focused on the full digitalization of its revenue collection system through the Oyo State Integrated Financial Management Information System (OYSIFMIS). 

This was intended to reduce human interaction and the potential for "off-record" payments that characterize multiple taxation. In 2022, businesses reported that overlapping levies and high operational costs were forcing downsizing, despite government efforts to introduce a central collection system. 

The most critical milestone in this journey occurred in December 2020, when the Oyo State House of Assembly passed the amended Revenue Administration Law. This was followed by the publication of the 2020 Consolidated Revenue Code, a move that was reported by national dailies as a "game-changer" for fiscal transparency. 

The code listed every authorized tax and levy in the state, effectively making any demand outside the code illegal. Throughout 2021, the Oyo State Internal Revenue Service (OYIRS) engaged in state-wide sensitization tours, urging taxpayers to demand official receipts and report any agency seeking payments not covered by the new code.

The administration began its reform in late 2019 by reviewing the state’s tax laws to identify areas of overlap between the state and its 33 local governments. Early in 2020, the Governor announced that the state would move away from aggressive tax collection toward "expanding the tax net." 

This period saw the introduction of a more structured "Presumptive Tax" for the informal sector, aimed at replacing the haphazard daily collections with a harmonized annual or monthly fee. However, the transition was hampered by the decentralized nature of local government collections, leaving the promise of total "elimination" of multiple levies as an unfinished task by the May 2023 handover.