The Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), has organized a three-day orientation exercise on revenue generation for the revenue officials in Zamfara State.
The exercise is designed to expose the revenue officials on the process of data collection and dissemination for the forthcoming review of the revenue allocation formula.
Alhaji Ibrahim Bako, RMAFC’s Commissioner in charge of Niger State, who spoke in Gusau on Friday, at the closing ceremony of the exercise, said they were in the state as part of a nationwide sensitization program initiated by the commission.
Bako said the commission had constituted six committees to facilitate the smooth conduct of the exercise in the six geo-political zones in the country.
He said that his committee had so far visited Zamfara, Sokoto, and Kebbi States in the Northwest.
The RMAFC official noted that some of the challenges leading to the low revenue generation in the state could be attributed to factors not incorporated in the revenue formula such as registration of Almajiri (Qur’anic school) pupils into formal school enrollment,
Bako listed other factors to include non-inclusion of natural resources which has not been captured in the national revenue formula to give the state 13 per cent derivation and high profile of tax defaulters for the Internal Revenue Generation (IGR).
In a remark, Yahaya Chado, the state’s Commissioner for Local Government and Community Development, commended the commission for organizing the exercise.
Chado said the exercise would avail the participants the opportunities to identify areas responsible for the low IGR and how to improve it.
He said the state government would leverage the ideas and knowledge learned from the exercise to boost its revenue base.