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Niger harmonises revenue laws to curb graft, multiple taxation

By Bala Yahaya Minna
10 February 2021   |   3:08 am
Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello, has disclosed that state and councils’ revenue law will be harmonised to reduce corruption and boost the state’s Internally Generated Revenue

[FILES] Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger. Photo: TWITTER/GOVNIGER

0Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello, has disclosed that state and councils’ revenue law will be harmonised to reduce corruption and boost the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

He gave the hint during the opening of a three-day training and workshop on harmonised State and Local Government Revenue Law 2020 at the Government House, Minna.

The governor stressed that the workshop was coming at a time the state was going through financial challenges and needed to boost its revenue generation.

His words: “The state has continued to experience shortfall from federation allocation. It is necessary for the state and councils to work together to increase our IGR.”

According to Bello, the state is supposed to generate between N2 billion and N3 billion monthly to augment what it gets from the federation account if the economy must be sustained.

He enjoined revenue staff to expand their nets of revenue collection to avoid yoking those that were already paying with multiple taxations, adding that insecurity was among the problems hindering revenue generation in the state, especially in some councils.

Assuring the citizens that things would get better, the governor noted that the state had the potential to be self-reliant through her IGR.

He, however, identified agriculture, tourism and mining as some of the potential revenue earners, pointing out that if properly harnessed, the sectors would be a cash cow to the state.

Earlier, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Nasara Dan-Mallam, said the harmonisation process of the revenue started in 2016, and that “the law has come to stay.”

Acting Chairman, Niger State Internal Revenue Service, Ahmed Gunna, stated that the introduction of harmonisation was aimed at building an ambitious revenue profile for the state and councils.

Gunna said since the beginning of the present administration, IGR had been increasing annually, assuring that they would use technology to explore other avenues to checkmate corruption and generate more revenue for the government.

Commissioner for Finance, Abubakar Zakari, stated that the workshop was one of the many efforts of the state government to boost revenue generation in the state.

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