28th February, 2018
Kaduna State House of Assembly has directed state revenue agency to take proactive measures against taxes defaulters in local government areas.
The Assembly gave the directives through its Committee on Finance during an interactive meeting with official of the state revenue service on Wednesday in Kaduna.
The committee Chairman, Alhaji Sani Gimi stressed the need for the service to deploy all available powers to compel local councils meet revenue target.
“If they are not doing well let’s start setting examples by taking proactive action.
“Its disheartening to see a common man paying his tax and somebody is cornering the money, using the money for his own personal benefit, it’s very disheartening ,” he said.
Gimi commended the service for the remarkable in the revenue generated in the last two years.
According to him, the purpose of the meeting was to interact with officials of the revenue service and review its performance in 2017.
And also to rub minds on issue that has to do with revenue collection of federal government establishment, state agencies and local government.
He described the service as the engine room that would take government to promise land.
READ: LASG urged to complete rail project to ease gridlock
“We want the service to do more, it is disheartening to see that some revenues are leaking; they will collect the money but is not coming into the government purse.
“We encourage them to take proactive action to make sure that any money that is collected is remitted to government purse.”
He stressed the need for government to allocate more funds to the service.
“A lot of money should be able reach the service, without money you cannot generate money; we are going to encourage them to open up more avenues in terms of finance”.
The Executive Chairman, Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service, Muktar Ahmed appreciated the assembly members for their cooperation and support.
Ahmed, however, appealed to the house to amend some sections of the tax codification law, to its work move smoothly.
He said the service would track revenues in local councils based on their approved budget.