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Delta State Government recorded a whopping N154 billion in internally generated revenue between 2016 and 2018, according to the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. David Edevbie.
Edevbie, who made this known on Tuesday, January 29,2019, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Asaba, said the state realised approximately the sum of N44 billion as IGR in the Year 2016; it realised N52billion in the Year 2017 and N58.4 billion in the Year 2018.
He said that the total IGR generated by the state amounted to N154 billion during the period.
The commissioner also said that the state intended to come up with new plans on how it would increase its IGR this year.
He contended that there had been a continuous process since 2015 to improve on the state’s IGR on a yearly basis.
“First, in a bid to remove the perception of a multiplicity of taxes, we have laid emphasis on harmonising taxes and reducing the number of tax consultants.
“This has gradually improved accountability for all tax collections.
“Secondly, the adoption of the Electronic Treasury Receipt has helped the state to eliminate reporting time lags and minimise leakages and the suppression of funds in its revenue collection process.
“Thirdly, we are now focused more on the informal sector and the unregulated economy, especially, the micro- informal sector.
“With the introduction of the presumptive tax, more than 500,000 people had been captured into the tax net from the informal sector.
“In addition, there have been tremendous improvements in revenue from land charges.
“Once all these reforms are institutionalised and sustained, there will be significant growth in the state’s aggregate tax collections,’’ Edevbie said.
The commissioner also said that the state government had scheduled several training programmes for tax and revenue officers this year.
He said that they would cover the electronic-tax system and the use of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) internet portal to drive tax returns among others.
He said that there was a strong focus by the state to make the BIR becomes ICT driven.
According to him, awareness campaigns have also been designed for the public.