By; Â ALEX UANGBAOJE, Kaduna
The Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KDIRS) said on Tuesday that it has generated N26.53 billion as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in 2017.
KDIRS Executive Chairman, Mukhtar Ahmed who made this know at a press briefing in Kaduna added that the state targets N42 billion in 2018.
Ahmed said that the N26.53 billion represents 52 per cent of the N50.2 billion targeted for the year and an increased of N3.5 billion from the N23 billion generated in 2016.
He added that taxes constitute 51 per cent of the revenue followed by levies and fees.
He explained that the state did not meets its revenue target because of certain government policies designed to reduce the burden of tax payers in the state.
He however said that measures are being put in place to ensure that this years target was met.
He identified truancy, shortage of manpower and incomplete automation of tax payment in revenue generating agencies as major challenges affecting revenue collection in the state.
According to him, the service will soon complete the recruitment of new staff predominantly youths to inject fresh blood into the system with a view to improve revenue collection in the state in 2018.
“Once the recruitment exercise is completed, we will deployed them to the field to boost our revenue collection instead of using money agents who are sometimes dubious.
“We will give our staff target, equip them with Point of Sales (PoS) and tricycle to penetrate local markets and directly collect revenue for the state.
“Not only that, we will also ensure full automation of revenue collection in all the 68 revenue generating agencies in the state.”
The chairman commended tax payers in the state for their support to the government to ensure that revenue was raise for development.
He acknowledged that 95 per cent of challenges in revenue collection was with the tax collectors, adding that effort are being made to address the anomaly.
On his part, KDIRS Legal Adviser, Mr Francis Kozah, reminded tax payers of the existing tax law in the state, adding that the service would prosecute all tax defaulters in accordance with the law.
Kozah said that the revenue agency has recorded 25 criminal cases relating to tax payments in 2017.
He also said that 50 cases relating to tax default were taken to court in 2017 out of which 35 cases are still at various level of prosecution.
