The Executive Chairman, Edo State Internal Revenue Service (EIRS) has said that a good revenue administration system would unlock the true realizable potentials from the informal sector and tame the bulls.
Igbinidu Inneh, Executive Chairman, EIRS delivering his lecture at the onboarding programme organized for elected council executives.
He made this assertion while delivering a lecture at the onboarding programme organised by the State Government, for the newly elected Local Government Council Executives which held recently in Benin.
Mr. Inneh stated that the factors that hinder an efficient and effective revenue administration includes leakages, weak financial controls, lack of voluntary compliance from taxpayers and illegal revenue collections by non-state actors.
The EIRS boss reiterated that government revenues collected by revenue collectors in the past which sometimes does not get to government’s treasury, there is a great need to go cash-lite or at best, cashless and this is achievable with the introduction of a proper revenue administration system which will take care of the limiting factors affecting the revenue administration processes obtained in the past.
He however told participants that, to have an efficient and effective revenue administration system, certain things must be identified and they include, Data Capture, Profiling (Individual/Business), Assessment, Notification, Settlement, Demand, Enforcement, Sanctions and Reporting.
He also highlighted the six (6) critical success factors for achieving the goal of effective and efficient revenue administration process to include value for money, availability of data, enlightenment and social inclusion, technology, legal and regulatory environment and human capital.
The Executive Chairman noted that the EIRS has developed a system that can handle the shortfalls as regards revenue administration processes, with certain elements considered in its build up. These elements, he said to be – Knowledge, Process, Innovations, Control, Transparency and Accountability.
He said, “In putting this framework together for our automation, we took into consideration the needs and requirements of the Local Government, so the EIRS can actually accommodate the Local Government’s revenue line item on the system, because the process will be driven from a single data warehouse”.
The EC ended his lecture by talking about the solution approach, project drivers and financial controls involved in an efficient and effective revenue administration system.