Kaduna rakes in N6.7b IGR from Jan to April – Official

​The Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service(KDIRS) said it generated N6.7 billion as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) between January and April.The Executive Chairman of KDIRS, Muktar Ahmed, announced this in Kaduna on Thursday at a news conference to mark the second anniversary of Governor Nasir el-Rufai led-administration.Ahmed said the state’s monthly revenue generation had increased from an average of N1.4 billion in 2016 to N1.7 billion in 2017.He reiterated the commitment of the service to attain its monthly revenue targetof N4 billion.The KDIRS chairman said that the target was achievable, considering the efficiency in tax collection, courtesy of the new tax law in the state.

According to Ahmed, the tax law has designated KDIRS as the only revenue collection agency in the state.He said that discussions were ongoing with the 77 revenue generating agencies inthe state to abide by the provision of the law, to improve efficiency of tax collection.The Kaduna State Tax (Codification and Consolidation) Law 2016 has automated all revenue collection and criminalised physical cash collection of tax.The chairman, however, acknowledged challenges being experienced in the process, particularly in rural areas where there were no banks.He said that the service had employed the services of money agents certified by the Central Bank of Nigeria and would soon deploye Point of Sales (POS) in all rural communities to ease tax collection.

Ahmed said people’s negative attitude towards paying tax was the bane of collection in the country. “Tax is a word many Nigerians do not wantto hear. Our attitude towards paying tax is not encouraging at all. “Maybe because tax payers hardly see what their money is used for. But this has changed with the coming of the APC administration.Ahmed said that Gov. Nasir El-Rufai had mandated the service to set aside N1 billion monthly for infrastructure across the state.“As you can see, hospitals are being renovated, roads are being repaired, drainage systems are being constructed and several other ongoing infrastructure across the state. “This is a conviction that tax payers’ money is being injected into infrastructure development in the state. “Therefore, people no longer have any reason not to pay their tax consistently andas at when due. ”He disclosed that tax payers owed the state N5 billion in arears, stressing that KDIRS would utilise legal means to ensure that every tax payer met the tax obligations.

The KDIRS chairman advised tax payers to,in their own interest, endeavour to pay taxes or face legal action. (NAN)