As part of efforts to meet up with Kwara State Government’s monthly statutory commitments and ensure necessary infrastructural development, the newly established Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS) has been directed to raise the state’s internally generated revenue to N5billion monthly.
The State Governor Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed who also flagged off the Kwara Resident Identification Number (KRIN), gave the directive at the Commissioning of Revenue House of the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service and the commissioning of the State Revenue Court, said the average monthly generation of N600m was no longer enough for financing capital and recurrent expenditure of the State.
Dr Ahmed noted that it was imperative that the Internally Generated Revenue of the State was aligned with current realities by changing the people, processes and technology for revenue collection, stressing that “the recent fall in global crude oil prices has led to a significant decrease in the funds available for distribution to federal, state and local government from the federation account”.
“In our case”, the governor explained, “monthly allocation dropped from an average of N3.4b to N1.4b monthly. To put this reduction in perspective, the state government requires N2.4b monthly for workers’ salary alone”.
According to the governor, when loopholes in revenue collection system are blocked, accruable revenues to the state government accurately and promptly remitted the target would be achieved, adding that “our goal is to ensure that Kwara State is economically viable and self-sufficient, rising from our current position to achieve the second highest IGR per capital in Nigeria by 2019”.
On the Kwara State Resident Identification Number, Governor Ahmed said the unique number would be allocated to all residents to enable them access government’s services while also serving as a form of identification. He urged all residents of the state to take advantage of the free registration for KRIN in order to guarantee access to services such as education, health and other social goods.
On the Kwara State Revenue Court, the governor explained that it was in compliance with the Kwara State Revenue Administration Law 2015 which created the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service.
The Executive Chairman of KWIRS, Dr Murtala Awotundun in his remarks, said the service would in the medium term develop a solid data base to enhance its tax collection responsibility and in the long run expand the taxable base to those out of the tax net.