Finance Metro

Nasarawa plans clampdown on revenue fraudsters, generates N16.8bn

The Nasarawa State government has said it generated the sum of N16.8bn as internally generated revenue for the year 2021 after banning the use of manual receipts and introducing a central billing system for the collection of taxes in the state.

The Executive Chairman of the State Internal Revenue Service, Ahmed Muhammad, disclosed this in an interview with our correspondent in Lafia on Tuesday.

He said it became necessary to introduce the central billing system because the usage of manual receipts for the collection of taxes became an avenue for some corrupt individuals to enrich themselves with the state funds.

Muhammad noted that before his appointment into office four years ago, the highest revenue generated by the state on a yearly basis was N6bn.

He said with the initiatives recently put in place, the state was able to generate the sum of N16.8bn for the year 2021.

He said, “We were able to achieve this feat because the state government has banned the use of manual receipts. We now have a platform that we use which is called the central billing system.

“If you make any payment on the central billing system, you can print an online receipt. The use of manual receipts was an avenue by some corrupt individuals to deprive the government of its funds. Anybody could just go and print receipts anywhere. But with the new system, you will not get receipts unless you make payment through the platform.

He said the state government was partnering with the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services to track down individuals who were still using manual receipts to collect taxes from residents of the state despite its ban.

Muhammad said, “Apart from the monitoring team that we have here, we are also working in collaboration with the police and the DSS to see that we arrest those issuing manual receipts. We have made several arrests and most of them have been charged to court.

“Lack of compliance in tax payment is our biggest challenge. So, we are appealing that residents of the state should take the payment of tax very seriously. I am not satisfied with the N16.8bn we generated for the state in the year 2021 because I want to do more.”

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