The Chairman, Jigawa State Internal Revenue Services (JIRS), Dr Nasir Sabo said, the agency had increased the state’s internal revenue generation by over 300 percent in September.
The Chairman disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Online Tribune in Dutse, the state capital, said following some innovations put in place of internal revenue collection the agency increased the collection from N1.2 billion monthly to over N4.2 billion in September.
Dr Nasir Sabo explained, “I’m happy to inform you that we recorded a remarkable improvement in the history of local revenue generations in Jigawa, as the state had its collections from N1.2 billion in August to N4.2 billion in the month of September 2024”.
According to him, “the growth of IGR in the state, was achieved as a result of new innovations and policies introduced by the service team and adopted by the present administration under the leadership of Malam Umar Namadi”.
The executive chairman maintained that some of the new policies introduced include digitalization of the revenue collection process (electronic tax collection) by introducing digital registration of the tax collection system which helps in blocking tax payment leakages.
Dr Sabo maintained that the milestone was also achieved due to increase in federal allocation to local governments as according to him, JIRS already built a mutual rapport with 27 local government areas in the state by signing a Memorandum of Understanding on tax collection.
He said other reasons for the rise of IGR are increased contracts awarded by the state government in the month of September, as well as adoption of a massive enlightenment campaign on how to pay your tax and how government uses it for provision of infrastructural development in the communities.
“We signed a Memorandum of Understanding between state and 27 local government on revenue collection process, we also initiated a partnership with some revenue collection agencies on areas like strategic IGR Growth and development initiatives, deployment of technology to eliminate tax avoidance in Jigawa, introducing relevant software to track down Net-worth Individuals(HNWI),capacity building of JIRS staff on the aspect of tax evasion, Anti-Money Laundering (AML), counter terrorism financing (CTF) and exchange of information and technology resources,as well as taxation of informal sectors among others,” Dr Sabo said.
He then commended governor Malam Umar Namadi for his support to JIRS and urged the general public to cooperate with the new policies for better revenue services and development of the state.