The executive chairman of the Kogi State Internal Revenue Services (KGIRS), Sule Salifu Enehe, has acknowledged revenue leakages in tax administration in the state but expressed optimism about the introduction of a fiscalisation policy to close the gap.

Enehe, who made this known during a Stewardship Forum organised by the Correspondents’ Chapel of NUJ, Kogi State Council, acknowledged that there is significant lawlessness on the side of taxpayers, resulting in poor revenue generation.

He said, “Under my management, the state revenue has improved from N700,000 per month to the current N3 billion per month. But that improvement is too meagre compared to the revenue potential of the state.

“Government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) are not doing enough to meet their tax collection targets. The taxpayers also enjoy evading tax and even usurp the duties of revenue officers to defraud the state of its statutory revenue.”

Enehe frowned at the attitude of local government chairmen who recruit party loyalists as tax collectors to the detriment of the state government. “My major headache is the local government chairmen deploying untrained youths to embark on revenue drives in such a lawless manner, inimical to government revenue targets.”

The chairman, however, expressed optimism that the issues of revenue leakages would be extensively addressed when the fiscalisation policy of the federal government comes into force next year.

He added, “The fiscalisation policy is an automated revenue collection system designed to avoid the prevailing massive fraud in the sector. It involves using special cash registers or software to accurately record tax collection and help prevent tax evasion.”

He also assured that the challenges associated with the multiple taxation crisis will be a thing of the past with the implementation of the fiscalisation policy.

He added, “In addition to the fiscalisation policy, we have plans to put in place social infrastructures here and there to encourage willingness in tax, particularly in the water transport sector, where we have been losing so much revenue. I mean, I will do all within my personal capacity to optimise state revenue services.”

Earlier, in his opening address, the chairman of the Correspondents’ Chapel, Segun Demola of Channels Television, said the stewardship forum was a programme organised by the chapel to hold public office holders accountable to the people.