Appropriate taxes necessary for growth, says governor

Appropriate taxation culture has been described as a necessity for economic growth of the country, especially in the face of dwindling earnings from crude oil.

Kwara State Governor, Dr. Abdulfatah Ahmed, made the assertion when the National President of the Chartered Institute of Nigeria (CITN), Dr. Olateju Somorin, paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House in Ilorin.

The Governor said the dwindling monthly fiscal allocations has been taking toll on the economic fortunes of states and the country at large, adding that states must exploit new forms and areas of taxation in order to stay afloat.

Ahmed expressed concern that taxation has not been given the right place in Nigeria, especially in helping to ensure the growth of the local economy
“It is imperative that we do not leave things out by ensuring that taxation is given the rightful place and taken to all levels across the nooks and crannies of the country so that people can truly see that the core responsibility goes hand in hand with economic, social and political development.
“No meaningful development can take place without exploring and exploiting new aspects of taxation because we are at a cross road at the moment in this country with our over reliance on oil as our economic mainstay”, he said.

He explained that his administration was embracing new approaches to taxation through the deployment of new technologies by well-trained professionals in order to drive enhanced Internally Generated Revenue for economic growth.

The Governor assured the people of the state that new taxation approaches would not translate into additional tax burden on the people, adding that the operations of the newly established Kwara State Internally Revenue Service would be benchmarked against best practices.

This new phase is premised on the tripod system of changing people, process and technology taking into cognizance the need to get the desired results. We are not unaware of the need to ensure that professionals drive the activity of taxation in the right capacities.
“We will ensure that standards are maintained to ensure that we are able to get the right levels of inflow for Kwara State for the right development agenda,” he said.

But CITN President commended the state government for establishing the internal revenue service to enhance tax collection and other developmental agenda, particularly the environmental sanitation programme as well as the peace agenda.

She solicited the assistance of the state government in ensuring that staffers of the state revenue service attend the association’s tax conferences and other professional development initiatives of the institute.