The Gombe State Internal Revenue Service has pledged to improve its services in order to increase its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in view of the recent controversies over Value Added Tax (VAT) collection.
Chairman of the revenue service, Abubakar Inuwa Tata, made the pledge at the weekend when he received an award as the sixth fastest growing state in IGR by Revenue Magazine.
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Tata said that before the administration of Governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya, the state was earning about N500 million monthly in IGR, including the PAYE from state, Local Government and SUBEB employees.
He said within two years of Governor Yahaya’s administration, the IGR being generated monthly was increased to over N716 million, in addition to Payee from state, LGAs and SUBEB employees.
He said from January to August, on the average, the revenue service had been generating about N786 million monthly, “including the PAYE and we will continue to improve to ensure the number keeps growing.”
According to him, the increase in the revenue generation is a justification of Governor Yahaya’s broadening of the IGR base of the state to reduce dependence on the monthly Federal Allocation.
The chairman dedicated the award to the entire staff of the service, whom he commended for their integrity by ensuring that all government revenue went to government coffer.
Earlier, Chairman of the Revenue Magazine, Frederick Apeji, said the annual Nigerian States IGR awards programme was designed to encourage and foster a healthy competition among the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.
He said the Gombe Revenue Service was honoured for improving its collections by 25.5% from 6.80 billion naira in 2019 to about 8.54billion naira for the past one year.
“It is commendable for Gombe State to become the 6th fastest growing state in IGR in 2020, despite the internal unrests and challenges on revenue collection across the state.”
