How Benue IGR was shared out to political cronies – Agema

Mr. Emmanuel Agema is the Acting Chairman, Benue Internal Revenue Service (BIRS). In this interview with SAMSON KUKWA-YANOR, he talks about his efforts to improve on the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), his challenges and the renewed confidence of the people.

As chairman, what is your vision for the board? 

My vision here as acting chairman is to turn around this board to be a board where taxpayers will have confidence, and taxpayers will pay their taxes as at when due. The system will be automated from head to toe to block all leakages and generate enough revenue for government to be able to execute its developmental projects.

So, we are doing this with all seriousness and commitment to achieve this vision. We are really working hard in pursuing this vision.

What are some of your achievements within the period you came on board as chairman?

Yes, when I came on board, workers were operating here as if it’s a private business and you know the business of taxation is law, policy and administration.

You first of all have to observe the laws that are guiding these operations and transactions to be able to do it without issues and I met a board that was like part of a network, an accomplice in the system because we had leakages all over.

When I took over, I overhauled the whole system. I put down a structure that has been able to block all these leakages, moved people that were living here as if it’s their birth right and brought in energetic young men and women who have the knowledge, who have the capacity to carry out the activities of revenue collection for the state in earnest. And that is what we have been doing thus far.

Before you came in, there were cases where some contractors had their personal receipts and revenues were being channeled into private pockets, what measures have you put in place to checkmate it?

Thank you very much. That was the practice. We used to have political consultants. You will all agree with me that for you to practice taxation, you ought to be a professional with knowledge of law, tax law, tax administration and the policy of government towards taxation.

People were just given those consultancy jobs. I call it political consultancy because they were people who did not have the knowledge, they did not have the capacity to carry out these activities but were just given the roles for them to also partake in sharing the cake.

And so, at the revenue collection points, we were having a lot of leakages. On top of this, at the end of every month, the system will remit 20% of the money they had collected back to them again. So, you can see that it was more or less like a private business.

But since this government came on board, His Excellency, Rev Father Dr Hyacinth Iormem Alia is completely against this idea of sharing Benue funds as if it’s private business or national cake. So, he has instructed me to do the right thing and I have terminated all those consultants, they are no longer here.

If you see any consultant here, it’s a professional consultant that will help us in various areas that are technical areas for us to achieve maximum collection. We have terminated those political consultants, and they are no longer here.

So, we are using the staff of board of Internal Revenue to be able to do the collection maximally and so far, so good, we have been achieving very great results.

What is the state’s projection in terms of revenue and how will you meet the target?

Yes, we are not there yet but we are working seriously to achieve the target because, take for instance, in the area of the informal sector, it’s another gold mine. Over 80% of the population of the state belongs to that sector.
You see small-small businesses scattered across the whole state and these people are not paying taxes as they should pay. Since I came on board, I have been working with my management to be able to bring all these people into the tax net.

We have started with public transport drivers. You can see how a driver that works from the 1st to the 30th of every month earns so much, some of them earn more than directors in the civil service but they don’t pay tax, so we have adopted a resumptive tax arrangement for them to be paying small small once you load, you pay something so that at the end of the month, what you have paid will be tangible to be looked at as your own tax for that month.

So, we have started that. We had meetings with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW)band they have all agreed to support this government, that truly they have seen what this government is doing. They said that at least, government can now pay salaries, government can now pay pensions and they know that government can also develop infrastructure so they will support this government in earnest for it to achieve her developmental projects and so, they have accepted in total to support and pay their taxes that are due to government.

We have deployed POS (Point of Sale) machines across the 23 local government areas including public parks. We are also working with private parks for them to agree so that we will begin to collect from them and of course, we are also meeting with the okada (commercial motorcycle) riders. We have met with their union but we got to understand that the union is polarised, they are in court, about three different factions are in court so we could not identify the one that is legally accepted but once they come together, we will now identify the one that is legally accepted as the union and then we will begin to collect from that end too.

Of course, we are going to reach to the market women too. This we are going to do in such a way that it will not inconvenience any business at all, but you pay something for you to know that you are also part of this government. You know, these types of taxation or the business of taxation is not an easy one so these are the strategies that we have put in place, but we will do it in such a way that it will not inconvenience any business.

Your staff are often seen moving from one shop to another collecting taxes, what informed your decision to embark on such aggressive revenue drive?

You see, I would have said that particular question is for another day but let us look at it briefly. Look at what happens in this country, the question you have asked has to do with our patriotic zeal to perform our civic responsibility.

Elsewhere, even citizens of this country when they are going to any of these country in foreign land, they willingly pay their taxes so that they will not be harassed anywhere but here people even prefer to take you to court so that they will not pay.

I don’t know whether it is because they don’t have confidence in the system, that I wouldn’t know but I know that once a government is in place and is doing its activities, is carrying out its responsibilities as it should, everybody will be willing to pay.

Take for instance, now you hear that His Excellency is paying salaries, His Excellency is paying pensions, there are one or two roads construction going on now so by mere looking at it, you will know that tax payers money is working so anybody that has conscience, anybody that is normal would want to do the needful so I believe so much that, that is the reason why we are also having this much cooperation from tax payers because they are seeing the little little things that are happening now.

Don’t forget we are just about five months old in governance, but you have already started seeing things happening. It was not like this the last six month, it was not like this but now everybody is willing to partake, to also contribute to the achievement of this government. I believe so much that, that is why the taxpayers are showing that zeal of contributing to the development of the state by paying their taxes.

What are the challenges faced so far?

Of course, we have a lot of challenges from the political class especially. Some politicians who have lost out are working seriously to make sure they sabotage every effort we are making here.

For instance, you see these young boys that normally block the highways to extort money from motorists and the public, they are doing it simply because they want to frustrate our government. If you look at the Benue state revenue administrative law, we have about 16 gazetted revenue inspection points in this state.

These inspection points are actually not roadblocks but we have mounted these revenue inspection points to be able to track those tax evaders in the various markets and farms. You know we deal with agro products.

So, they are trying to sabotage this government so that it will not get what is accruable to it as taxes from agricultural produce by setting up illegal roadblocks.

Only today, I got calls from three communities informing me of illegal check points because I sent my phone numbers across that anywhere you notice illegal extortion by way of roadblock, call me so that I will swing into action.

I had a call from this road going to Naka, I even sent my men, and they were able to track one person and he is now in police custody, the rest took to their heels.

Another call came from the road from Aliade to Taraku where we have two illegal inspection points but don’t worry, we are going after them. We still have one at Ugbema junction, but we will go after those ones too.

So, you see, we have challenges from these hoodlums, these miscreants and some of them are being sponsored by politicians to do it so that they will give this government a bad name.

The previous government had unresolved businesses with some people. We are having a lot of problems from such people. Some of them have even gone to court and are doing everything they can to thwart our efforts one way or the other. We are nevertheless pushing on.

Any logistics problem?

Well, we are managing what we have. I understand very well how we started when we came on board because I was part of government and we decided that for now we should manage what we have because if you talk of mobility, our work is field work and so we go out every day and all our vehicles are not strong again but because we are doing this with seriousness and patriotism, we have decided to make do with what we have.

Of course, we have written to His Excellency to provide some of these logistics but in the meantime, we have decided to manage what we have in order to make ends meet.

Were there losses incurred as a result of operating under the consultants you termed unprofessionals?

Yes, the revenue law is about who should be contracted to operate here as a revenue consultant. If you look at section 15/11 of Benue revenue administrative law, section 12, subsection 6, 8 and 9 are explicit on that. So, this law is very clear on who should act as a consultant. He or she is supposed to be a professional, not the miscreants or quacks who were hitherto engaged.

So, taxation is a very technical area, even if you have a PhD in a different field, it will be difficult for you to operate because you first of all have to know about the tax law to be able to operate within the confines of taxation.

So, it’s a very technical area, it’s not something that you can just appoint who doesn’t know what it means by tax collection to come and operate here as a consultant. His Excellency has given us directive to make sure we do away with these quacks and political consultants.

If you employ somebody who is not a medical doctor to go and treat a patient in the hospital, someone who does not even have any knowledge about health, you employ him to go and handle complicated and technical health issue of a patient, what do you expect? it will be disastrous.

So, we were having very serious problems with that. Even the government knew that it took a wrong decision by bringing in those people to come and consult for her.

I am very sure that as I am here saying this, they will not be happy but that’s not the right thing. The right thing is, people who can do the job should be given the opportunity to do it not because you belong to a political party that won elections or maybe you have somebody that supported you when you were doing campaign and you give consultancy to him to come and collect revenue, it’s wrong, it’s completely wrong.

Even the Joint Tax Board (JTB), our highest regulatory body is highly against that.

What legacy would you like to be remembered for?

Wow, I want to leave a board where taxpayers will have confidence in. You know this taxation, this collection of tax once you begin to show that these monies you are collecting is going into government coffers, everybody would want to pay but if you are collecting and diverting it to build your mansions, of course everybody will say they cannot pay.

I am telling you, human beings are very sensitive. If you are diverting it and they begin to see that you are living a very flamboyant life and you are working here, people will begin to ask how much is this man collecting as his own salary that he is driving that kind of car. It’s our money, it’s taxpayers money that he is using to buy those cars, they will say and so they will not have confidence in the system. But once you are very clean, once you demonstrate this attitude of being honest for people to see, they will have confidence in the system.

Look at what His Excellency is doing, this is somebody that when he came on board, he is using the old cars that were given to him for over six months. Somebody told me sometimes that one of the cars got spoilt on the road, he took upon himself that challenge that any Kobo he realises here is for the development of this state and people are seeing all these things and they have begun to have confidence in what he is doing and I believe so much that, that is why they are cooperating with us.

Only we cannot do it. If you like use the whole forces you have, use the government might you have to compel people to pay but once they don’t have the confidence they will not pay and if you like shout, intimidate and do all you can.

But once they see, it’s not rocket science, so once you see people begin to have confidence in the system they will cooperate, they will pay their taxes.

I pray that I should leave a board that the public will have confidence in to pay their taxes for government to do infrastructure and carryout developmental projects.