Revenue leakages: Nasarawa begins implementation of harmonisation law
Nasarawa State Government has begun the implementation of its Harmonisation and Administration of Revenue law to block revenue leakages.
The Harmonisation and Administration of Revenue Bill was passed by the state assembly and became a law on Dec. 31, 2020 after Gov. Abdullahi Sule assented to it.
It provides for the harmonisation and collection of all revenues accruing to the state and local government areas as well as the establishment of relevant administrative structures.
Sule, while addressing a stakeholders’ summit on the implementation of the law on Thursday in Lafia, said it was meant to ensure transparency in the system and boost the revenue base of the state.
He pointed out that government needed the resources for the overall development of the state, hence the need to sanitise the revenue generation system.
According to Sule, Nasarawa has the potential to sustain itself without the allocation from the federation account but that Internally generated revenue leakages have made that impossible.
The governor warned that the state government would not tolerate anyone found violating the law.
“I am appealing to all to obey this law for the betterment of state,” Sule said.
Also speaking, Chairman of the State Internal Revenue Board, Ahmed Muhammad, said the essence of the law was to curtail the unorganised manner in which Ministries, Department and Agencies as well local government areas interacted with tax payers without recourse to the revenue board.
Muhammad said, “The multiplicity in the collection of receipts necessitated the need to harmonise these processes for proper monitoring and coordination between MDAs, local government areas and the state revenue board.”
According to him, the law centralises the process of serving demand notices, generation and collection of revenue under one pool.
Muhammed noted that the law empowers the board with the sole responsibility of revenue collection in the state to the exclusion of MDAs and local councils.
He said that part of the action plan developed by the board for the implementation of the law was the setting up of revenue collection administration in all local government areas.
According to him, the joint revenue committee, LGA revenue officers, supervisory councilors and Directors of Finance and Accounts would be fully involved to serve as arbiter between the LGAs and the state.
He said that the board would deploy its officers to all MDAs to monitor the processes and procedures.
Muhammad added that the board would re-train its staff and deploy technology for revenue collection, especially the central payment platform and the integration of LGAs and MDAs into the system.
