IGR; Kwara Rakes in N8.09b in 6 Months

By Tope Sunday, Ilorin;
Kwara State Internal Revenue Service, (KWIRS) in the last six months generated N8.09billion revenue for the state government, its Chairman, Dr. Muritala Awodun, has disclosed.

The feat, according to him, is a sharp departure from 2015 when a sum of N7.2billion was realized for the whole year.

Awodun, who spoke in Ilorin on Tuesday at a media briefing organised by the state’s ministry of Information and Communications, explained that the amount generated covered the first and second quarters of this year ( January-March and April-June).

Giving a breakdown of the sum, the KWIRS boss said a total of N977million was realised for the month of January; N1.05billion in February; N1.25billion in March; N2.07billion in April; N1.45billion for May while a sum of N1.3billion was realised so far the month of June, which lapses tomorrow (Thursday).

Of the total amount, Awodun said N5.002billion was shared as state revenue while N3.097billion was set aside as retained earnings.

He stated that the plan of the service was based on changing method of revenue collection by deploying the people, process and new technology.

The KWIRS chairman said that there were huge leakages in the past owing to unscrupulous activities of some people, just as he added that the government also discovered under-declaration of revenue generated in some agencies.

He said the efforts of the service to plug the leakages had shored up the internal revenue accrued to the state, which he said, was a sheer departure from what the revenue generation used to be.

Meanwhile, the state internal revenue service would from next month begin a massive campaign against tax defaulting organisations in the state.

The chairman of the service stated that any agencies found wanting in the campaign would be sealed off to serve as deterrent to others.

He said the revenue agency was currently pursing some banks and federal agencies domicile in the state to secure the tax money due to state from them.

Awodun, who also highlighted some of the achievements and challenges of the service, expressed concern that some ministries within the state government circles had been resisting collection of revenue by officers of the service, saying this situation formed the bulk of daily problems facing his agency.

“We have prepared for the challenges ahead of us. Hitherto, some people collected huge sum as tax on behalf of the state government and declared paltry sum, thus feeding fat on the illegitimate money that was supposed to be paid into government coffers”, he said.

On the controversy surrounding the revenue generation of the state owned higher institutions of learning, the KWIRS stated that they were not established to provide free service.

He said because more money was available in the past in government purse, some of the internal earnings by the institutions were not accounted for.

Awodun also debunked the rumour that the current revenue drive was a ploy to burden residents with multiple tax, pointing out that the method used by the service was to block the barrier and ensure that taxable people and organisations are made to pay tax