By Mumini AbdulKareem
The Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS) said its target is to reach the threshold of over N38 billion as revenue to be generated internally in 2018 even as it noted that Kwarans are the least taxpayers in the country.
The Executive Chairman of the service, Dr Murtala Awodun said this on Tuesday in Ilorin during a media parley organised at the instance of the state Ministry of Information at Savannah Hotel, Ilorin.
According to Awodun, the projected revenue this year is N38billion which has been included in the budget recently passed by the Kwara State House of Assembly and accented by Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.
He said KWIRS since 2015 when it began operation has improved the revenue generated from N7. 2 to N17.4, and 19.94 billion in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Awodun attributed social pressure as one of the factors that impeded its effort in meeting its 2017 target of about N30 billion.
He said the service has resolved to adopt strategy of praising the stakeholders and would continue to reinforce and retain taxpayers to do more.
Comparing tax payment in Kwara with other states, Awodun said Kwara is the lowest in terms of income paying tax in the country.
He said, despite the federal government law on tax which stipulated the least tax per person as N6,500, the service ensures that Kwarans pay what is convenient for them.
“The informal sector people pay N1,500 per annum as tax, which is N125 per month and there is nobody in that formal sector, the organised private sector, that is paying less than 12,000 per annum.
“Whoever is collecting minimum wage will pay nothing less than 12,000 per annum. So if the people in the informal sector are paying N125 monthly… we have taken into consideration that this thing (tax) is a bit strange and we have to introduce it in a subtle way.
“This is despite the fact that the federal government law on tax said the lowest paying person in any state throughout the federation should pay N6,500. Here in Kwara State, we ensure that it is what they say is convenient for them that they pay and that is what we continued with,” he added.
He said since 2015, the IF-K has been used to complete many of the ongoing projects and new ones in the state.
Awodun noted that if government has not created a law to channel the taxes being generated into infrastructure, the money would have been liable to misappropriation.
He listed the Geri-Alimi underpass, Kulende/UITH dualisation and new campuses of KWASU among others as dividends of the tax services which the government would not ordinarily be able to do.
He said most of the project would be completed before the end of the year adding that there should be no abandoned project in this administration.
In his remarks, the Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Mahmud Babatunde Ajeigbe said the purpose of the gathering was to bridge the gap between service and media on one hand and general public on the other.
Present at the parley included the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of National Pilot, Alhaji Billy Adedamola, Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr (Mrs) Rhoda Funmilayo Ajiboye, General Manager of The Herald Newspapers, Alhaji Abdulrazaq Adebayo and his Radio Kwara counterparts, Alh. Abdullateef Adebowale.
