Enugu State Government raked in the sum of N35.9 billion as Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, between January and July 2024.
This is in contrast to the sum of N33.9 billion it generated in the entire 2023.
Arogidigba Global Journal recalls that the current administration took over the helm of affairs on May 29, 2023.
Executive Chairman of Enugu State Internal Revenue Service, (ESIRS) Emmanuel Nnamani, made this known while addressing journalists on his first year in office as the head of the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service, ESIRS.
He disclosed that Enugu State currently records an average tax collection of N5 billion monthly.
He noted that the success recorded so far was as a result of the proactive efforts of the state government, which included the activation of dormant taxes and expansion of the tax net to include businesses that were formally not paying their taxes.
“For instance, when we came in, we discovered that companies that should be in the formal sector mixed with the informal sector and were not filing their PAYE and withholding taxes. We had to bring them in.
“We activated the collection of capital gain tax arising from sale of lands at the Ministry of Land and Housing and that meant that for every consent, there must be capital gains tax paid.
“We also activated the purchase tax that hitherto was in the law but was not implemented,” he disclosed.
He explained that the government has also expanded the payment gateways to include platforms such as Moniepoint, interswitch, Quick teller, E-transact and Flutterwave to ease the process of tax payment for businesses in the state.
He said that the enforcement of the taxes didn’t come without push backs, noting however, that the backing of the state governor, Peter Mbah made the process a lot easier.
Nnamani urged the people of the state to partner with the government by paying their taxes, stressing that the residents could see the massive infrastructural development going on simultaneously across the state.