Michael Ovat, Author at Tribune Online

The Anambra State Government on Wednesday said residents and business owners were owing a total of N513.9 billion as taxes to the state. Dr David Nzekwu, outgoing chairman of Anambra Internal Revenue Service (AIRS), disclosed this at a news conference in Awka. Nzekwu said the figure was a total of taxes owed by more than 2.1 million potential taxpayers enrolled and uploaded on its digital database. Nzekwu who assumed office as chairman of AIRS in March 2018 said the IGR profile of Anambra grew from N17 billion per annum in 2018 to N30.9 billion as of the end of 2021. He said the number of taxpayers in the state increased from 11,000 to 506,000 during the same period due to structural reforms which expanded the tax base. "One of our core beliefs is to solve the challenges of revenue administration and we have set up an architecture for Information Technology deployment. This will enable people to do transactions with us. "We set up a system that is able to capture every individual taxpayer and receipt every taxation. That is what gave rise to Anambra Social Service Identity (ANSSID) number where each taxpayer has. "With that, we have generated a total collectable bill of N513.9 billion as of January this year against 2.1 million taxpayers in the state. This means that if my successor can generate this bill and distribute it to individuals and they begin to make payment, the government will have a lot of money," he said. Nzekwu said the AIRS had been positioned as a people-based revenue collection system with the deployment of Community Revenue Officers who relate with taxable members of the society at the community level. He said the endemic prevalence of illegal road and parks collection was a huge source of leakage to the government while welcoming the decision of Governor Chukwuma Soludo to abolish all such collections. He called for the strengthening of the Anambra Tax Administration Law, deepening the information technology deployment and digitisation of processes as a way of ensuring that all government revenue accrued to it. Nzekwu harped on the need for effective property tax administration in the state by dusting up the Anambra Property and Land Use Charge (APLUC) Law, 2011 and addressing the issues that led to its poor implementation including public resistance. YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state...I left N30.9bn I left N30.9bn Selfies, video calls and Chinese documentaries: The things you’ll meet onboard Lagos-Ibadan train The Lagos-Ibadan railway was inaugurated recently for a full paid operation by the Nigerian Railway Corporation after about a year of free test-run. Our reporter joined the train to and fro Lagos from Ibadan and tells his experience in this report...I left N30.9bn I left N30.9bn