Kaduna Attributes High IGR to Gov Sani’s Financial Inclusion Policy
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KADIRS), has attributed its recent ranking by the National Bureau for Statistics (NBS) as the leading state in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in the north, to Governor Uba Sani’s financial inclusion as well as the widening of the state’s tax net.
In a statement yesterday in Kaduna, Executive Chairman of KADIRS, Jerry Adams, said the success story was due to the automation of tax administration and the provision of work tools by the governor to drive the process.
Last week, the NBS released the IGR of all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory(FCT), showing that Kaduna State raked in N62.49b in 2023, emerging the highest in IGR earning in the north.
Adams said it was not surprising that Kaduna state was ranked as the subnational with the highest revenue generation in 2023 by the NBS.
He said: “The credit goes to Governor Uba Sani for automating tax administration in Kaduna State and providing work tools to drive the process. “KADIRS now has a one-stop-tax portal called ‘Pay Kaduna Portal’, which enables citizens to pay their taxes from anywhere, without physically coming to the tax offices.
“The automation has reduced leakages in the system. By just clicking on the particular tax icon, a tax payer can pay withholding tax, stamp duty tax and so on”.
He further pointed out that the Sani administration had widened the tax net without increasing taxes, adding that KADIRS has been expanding the tax net in a horizontal manner since July 2023 as against the vertical approach of the past which led to stagnation.
He said the overall policies of the Kaduna state government, helped significantly in improving its IGR.
‘’The policies of the Uba Sani administration have a human face and this has made businesses and companies that left Kaduna state in the past, to return. Coupled with that, he has initiated a lot of business-friendly policies which are having positive impact on revenue generation,’’ he said.
According to Adams: “The rural transformation of the Kaduna state government has improved voluntary tax compliance because people can see how their money is being spent.’’
He added: ‘’Our motto is ‘Tax For Service’ and the present administration has demonstrated this by the laudable projects that it is embarking on in the areas of roads construction, building new schools and other projects,”.
He called on the people of Kaduna State to pay their taxes as and when due, especially property tax and ground rents, adding that companies should also remit Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxes promptly.
Adams said that KADIRS has the potential of improving on its tax collection and boosting the IGR of Kaduna State, given the support that it is getting from the governor.
