The chairman Plateau state Revenue Services (PSIRS), Mr Arlat Dashe has disclosed that the services surpassed its revenue target for the second and third quarters of this year by N500 million despite the COVID-19 pandemic that ravaged lives and economies across the globe.
Mr Dashe who disclosed this while presenting the second and third quarters reports of the organisation in Jos, Plateau State.
He lamented the devastating effects of the pandemic on the economy, adding that the consequences of the pandemic forced the services to introduce palliative tax relief measures.
“The pandemic has unfortunately taken a heavy toll on human lives and businesses in the state. This has consequently slowed down the efforts of the services towards achieving targets within the period under review. As a sensitive and responsive government, the services recognised the suffering of businesses across the state and quickly introduced palliative tax relief measures to help mitigate the adverse effects of COVID-19 on Plateau businesses.”
According to him, the palliatives include the extension of timelines for filing of annual returns, waiver of penalties and interest charges due to late returns and reduction of interest for late payment among others.
The chairman who said the grand total from the first to the third quarter was N16,446, 960,604.99 added that tax assessments at its headquarters and zonal offices across the state was successful in ensuring that over 54% of taxpayers in the formal sector and 60% in the informal sector complied with PSIRS assessments and have been making payment as when due.
He added that between January and March 2020 alone the services embarked on aggressive tax audit and investigation of all organisations in and outside Plateau State, recording a remarkable recovery of over N3.8 billion from the federal MDA’s alone.
He said: “With the unprecedented drop of crude oil prices that resulted in the drop in statutory revenue allocation to the state, taxation and charging fees for services have become a ready-made an alternative with the attendant lockdown and semi lockdown across the states and country stifling economic activities in an effort to keep citizens safe from the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic.
“There is an urgent need for the government and citizens to brace up and confront the present realities of economic climate that now confront us.
“Strategies must be evolved to ensure the revenue are harnessed and collected from the little activities going on even amidst the pandemic to keep the wheel of government turning to meet the needs of the people. A post-pandemic strategy must be developed and deployed to ensure business activities resume seamlessly after the pandemic has abated.”
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