Kaduna revenue agency develops strategies to generate N60bn IGR in 2021

The Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service, KADIRS, has developed strategies to generate N60 billion Internally Generated Revenue, IGR target for 2021.

The Executive Chairman of KADIRS Zaid Abubakar made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday, at the end of a two-day meeting in Zaria to develop the strategies.

Mr Abubakar told NAN that Gov. Nasir El-Rufai has directed KADIRS to ensure that the IGR for 2021 was higher than the allocation to the state from the Federation Account.

He said the state government had pegged an IGR target of N51 billion in 2021, adding that the KDIRS management ambitiously increased the target to N60 billion.

“This ambitious target will put all of us on our toes so that if we did not meet the N60 billion target, we will at least generate N55 billion, higher than the N51 billion of state’s target for the years.

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“Our goal is to see that the IGR contributes more than 60 to 70 per cent of the state annual budget. This is a long-term plan but I believe if we are consistent with our approach, we will get there.

“This is why we are here to see what strategies we can develop to ensure that the expected revenue is collected and even surpass the target.

“This means that the public will begin to see a lot of field activities geared toward ensuring that all expected revenues are collected,” he said.

The KADIRS boss said that the agency would also carry out massive sensitisation and advocacies through available communication channels and community mobilisation for people to pay expected taxes as their civic responsibility.

He called on all taxpayers to voluntarily comply and pay all expected taxes when due through designated banks.

NAN reports that the state has over the years witnessed a consistent rise in IGR; from N13.6 billion in 2015 to N23 billion in 2016, representing a 69.8 per cent growth.

The IGR also increased to N26.9 billion in 2017 and was further raised to N29.4 billion in 2018.

On taking over the management of KADIRS in 2019, Abubakar led the agency to generate an unprecedented IGR of N44. 2 billion in 2019 for the first time surpassing the N41.7 targeted for the year.

NAN