By Steve Oni, Ilorin
The Chairman of the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS), Dr. Muritala Awodun, has disclosed that the Service has contributed about N13. 5 billion to the state’s special infrastructure development fund, IF-K, since the inauguration of the fund in September 2016.
Awodun, who made the disclosure on Wednesday in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, while addressing journalists on the performance of the Service in the second quarter of 2018, noted that the evolution of IF-K has significantly assisted the administration in executing numerous capital projects across the state, adding that the service now remits the sum of N530 million to the Fund on monthly basis, as against the initial N500 monthly remittance.
He said: “In 2015, there were over 60 projects abandoned across the state and there was no money but with the coming on board of the fund all the projects were completed and by 2016 given the available scenario government would not have been able to start any new project. However with the IF-K government was able to start several new projects and most of them are still ongoing across the state. ”
Giving a breakdown of the performance of the agency in the second quarter of 2018, Awodun said the Service collected the sum of N1.3 billion in April, N1. 2 billion in May and N1. 3 billion in June to make a total of N3. 8 billion. When added to the N6. 44 billion collected in the first quarter, he said the agency has collected a total of N10. 32 billion into the state’s coffers in the first six months of this year.
While acknowledging the influence of the political environment on operations of the Service, Awodun said his team has put in place strategies to ensure the continued success of the Service in coming years.
Expatiating, he said: “In the second quarter we started a process of engaging to be taken through the process of international certification; the ISO in two major areas; quality management system and business continuity management and we are going to be the first revenue agency in Nigeria to do this and we expect that by the end of this quarter we would have been certified.
“The essence of this is that whoever comes into the system would have a seamless process that does not depend on an individual to succeed.”
He also disclosed that the Service has so far spent N52 million on various community-impact projects out of the N100 million budgeted for such projects in 2018.
Leave a Reply