December 12, (THEWILL) – The Benue State Government has expressed concern over the dwindling federal allocation to the state, promising to strengthen its existing revenue laws so as to block leakages limiting its efforts to improve on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
The Chairman of the Benue State Internal Revenue Service (BIRS), Mrs Mimi Azape-Orubibi, who made the disclosure in Makurdi, explained that the existing law will be sent to the State House of Assembly for repeal.
“When the law is strengthened, all ministries and agencies, especially those providing essential service, will be required to remit all internal generated revenue to the consolidated revenue accounts before 75 percent will be returned to them,” she said.
Azape-Orubibi explained that the BIRS had adopted dialogue to address cases of illegal check points across the state as one of the ways of blocking revenue leakages.
She appealed to business partners to cultivate the habit of paying their taxes to enable government serve them better.
In his comment, the Director of Tax Assessment, Mr. Victor Beke, disclosed that BIRS had only recognised 16 approved checkpoints across the state, urging government agencies to file in all returns before the end of 2021.
Commenting, the Director of Tax Collection, Mr Emmanuel Agema, described Benue’s low revenue profile as a big challenge affecting the operations of the service.
Some respondents, including Terkimbi Gbatar and Titus Tyodugh, hailed the bold initiatives of BIRS to step up the IGR of the state and call for the orientation and motivation of its staff to live up to expectation.
Worried by the dwindling federal allocation to the state, Governor Samuel Ortom last week held a stakeholders meeting with traditional rulers, council chairmen, financial experts and members of the state executive council at the Benue Peoples House in Makurdi to discuss the way forward.
The meeting resolved to arrest and prosecute anyone found to be diverting monies accruing to the state treasury, among other things.
