The Chairman of the Joint Tax Board, JTB, Tunde Fowler, on Monday placed a call to the Kwara State Governor, AbdulFatah Ahmed, saying “ask your colleagues to empower their State Internal Revenue Services (SIRSs) by giving them autonomy.”
Autonomy, Mr. Fowler said, is the key to professionalism and generation of more revenue.
“The good work that you are doing is evident in the performance of the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service, KWIRS. It is good enough for others to follow. We commend the work that KWIRS is doing and agreed amongst ourselves to adopt is as a model. Like I often tell my colleagues, we members of JTB must not disappoint Nigerians.
“I like you to call on other governors, your colleagues in other states who have not taken the bold step to please do and give autonomy to State Internal Revenue Services. Please help us to convey this to them as an ambassador and tell other governors.
“While calling on the members of the JTB to intensify efforts towards meeting our revenue targets, I enjoin the various state governments to enhance funding of the tax authorities so as to achieve the desired objectives to ask his colleagues to do the same. You may have a vision. But if you don’t have the revenue to drive that vision, it is mere dream.
“I like to commend the efforts of the Executive Governor in transforming the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service. It is on record that the State annual IGR grew from N7.1 billion in 2015 to N17.2 billion in 2016. I therefore, urge the service not to relent in their efforts and continue to work hard to justify the encouragement received by the state government.
Mr. Fowler, who is also the Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, spoke in Ilorin on Monday, at the opening ceremony of the 137th Meeting of the JTB, with the theme: “Collaboration amongst tax Authorities: Its Impact on Revenue Generation and Service Delivery to Taxpayers.”
Governor Ahmed, who declared the meeting open, told the 36 chairmen of the State Internal Revenue Service that KWIRS’ ability to grow Kwara’s annual internally generated revenue fromN7.1 billion in 2015 to N17.2 billion in 2016 is predicated on three key planks: people, processes and technology.
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