From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
Governor Yahaya Bello, of Kogi State
The Acting Chairman of Kogi State Internal Revenue Service, Mallam Yusufu Abubakar has disclosed that his agency generated N17.5 Billion revenue to the coffers of the state government in 2020.
The Acting Chairman while interacting with the members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Kogi NUJ in his office over the weekend, hinted that the Revenue Service also made tremendous progress of raking in N1.3 Billion on monthly bases.
Abubakar said the focus of the new management in the last six months was to block all identified leakages in the system to make life easier for the numerous tax payers in the state.
The Acting Chairman gave an assurance that in the next three weeks, Kogi Revenue Service will introduce online innovation for the processing of tax payments and vehicle registration/renewal of particulars to avert cases of issuance of fake documents and sharp practices.
According to Abubakar “We are aiming at a situation where motor owners can access their particulars, register their vehicles and renew their papers through Kogi Revenue Service portal. They can even stay at their homes to carry out all these transactions Online. Most documents outside us are fake and not genuine” he explained.
He recalled that Kogi State Internal Revenue Service harmonization law 2017 passed into law in 2016 and became operational in 2017 is saddled with the sole responsibility of carrying out assessments, collection of taxes and reporting of taxes collected to the governor of the state.
The Acting Chairman said the Kogi State Internal Revenue Service with its headquarters in Lokoja has eleven other areas offices across the 21 local government areas of the state and staff strength of 600.
Abubakar said since he assumed office on Dec. 31, 2020, his focus had been on how to stop leakages and enhance the revenue of the state.
“We have been battling to fix things, to see how we can change the trajectory, change the focus of what we have been doing at Kogi Internal Revenue Service,” said Abubakar.
He said the Service had decided to automate tax payment, vehicle registration, licensing and renewal in the state to check fraudulent activities.
“We want a situation whereby the shop owner that is directly opposite the Revenue House does not actually need to go to the bank next street for him to make payments.
“As we speak we have engaged a partner for us to be able to automate all our processes of assessment and collection which takes the bulk of what we do.
“And all I would say now is, I believe within the next 90 days we should be able to achieve at the very least, 50 per cent to 70 per cent of automating our processes,” he said.
According to him, every owner of motor vehicle will be able to sit down in the comfort of his house and assess a particular link and be able to renew the documents of his vehicle.
“We are also looking at a situation whereby the person that wants to register a new vehicle could also go to our link and choose the plate number and tell us where to deliver it,” he said.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Correspondents’Chapel of Kogi NUJ, Friday Idachaba, promised adequate publicity of the organisation’s activities by his members.
He solicited continued partnership with the Finance Agency to boost the state economy.
