6th February, 2018
Chief David Edevbie, the Delta Commissioner for Finance, says the state’s decision to harmonise taxes and reduce tax consultants is to improve accountability and boost revenue from taxes.
Edevbie made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Asaba on Tuesday.
He said that the adoption of Electronic Treasury Receipt was helpful in eliminating time lags and minimising leakages of funds in revenue collection process.
Edevbie said that the state government was beginning to focus on the informal sector/unregulated economy, especially the micro informal sector.
According to him, with the introduction of presumption tax more than 500,000 people have been captured into the tax net from the informal sector.
“In addition, there was tremendous improvement in revenue from land charges which increased in excess of 600 per cent in 2017.
“Once all these reforms are institutionalised and sustained, there should be significant growth in the state’s aggregate tax collections,“he said.
Edevbie was optimistic that the 2018 budget would be better implemented.
“The funding challenges that were faced in the 2017 budget have reduced as monthly statutory allocations are on the rise, “ he said.