The Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KDIRS) has reconstituted Local Government Revenue Committees to boost revenue collection in the 23 local government areas of the state.
The Executive Chairman, Dr Zaid Abubakar, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna on Thursday, that the move was to reinvigorate the committees by injecting fresh blood in the system.
He explained that KDIRS was empowered by law to establish the committees to assist the revenue agency in carrying out its mandate, especially at the local level.
He said that part of the responsibilities of the committees was to ensure all revenue lines in local government were efficiently collected, especially land use charge and other revenue charges.
“They are saddled with the responsibilities of handling revenue in the LGAs; carry out an assessment of all taxes, fines, rates and other revenue charges under their jurisdiction and report to KDIRS.
“The new committees will be inaugurated on Dec. 5 and will be trained for massive revenue collection drive in 2020.
“This is part of efforts to enable us to achieve the N45.6 billion Internally Generated Revenue (IDR) targeted for 2020,” he said.
Similarly, Mr Francis Kozah, the Board Secretary and Legal Adviser, KDIRS, explained that establishing the committees was in line with the provisions of the state’s Tax Codification and Consolidation Law 2016.
Kozah said that Section 45 (1 & 2) of the law provides for the establishment of local government revenue committees to manage revenue collection in LGAs and reports to the KDIRS accordingly.
He said that based on the law, the Executive Chairman of KDIRS shall appoint the chairmen of the committees, made up of seven members.
“Other members include a nominee by the chairmen of the LGAs; councillors in charge of revenues and three Head of Departments handling revenue issues and the Area Revenue Officer of each LGA.
“After the enactment of the state revenue law in 2016, the first set of committees was inaugurated on Oct. 21 for a period of three years and they did their best and their time had elapsed.
“The newly appointed committees will, therefore, be trained on the provisions of the revenue law, the revenue lines and how the lines are assessed and enforced to enable them to carry out their tasks with all vigour,” he said.