By Steve Oni, Ilorin
The Kwara state Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS) has disclosed that the present socio-economic situations in the country, coupled with political pressures in the state have been some of the challenges militating against the company’s realisation of the set target of N30 billion revenue annually.
Speaking at a media briefing on activities of the agency in Ilorin on Tuesday, the Executive Chairman of the KWIRS, Dr. Murtala Awodun, said that record of performance for 2017 had showed that the N30 billion annual targets was realisable.
Dr. Awodun, who said the agency realised a sum of N18.2 billion as at end of November this year as opposed to a total of N17.2 billion in 2016, added that, “our target is to hit N24 billion. However, we are hoping to hit N20 billion at the end of 2017. There’s nothing stopping the state from hitting the N30 billion targets annually”.
The KWIRS boss linked some of the challenges facing the establishment to the recent local government elections in the state, saying that the election, which was postponed on three occasions, affected operations and fortune of the agency, explaining that the agency had to relax its operations during the election period to discourage possible allegations of blackmail against the government establishment.
Dr. Awodun, who also said that the agency was being considerate and sensitive to current socio-economic plight and conditions of the people in the state, added that there should be significant improvement in tax payment if the needed infrastructure is available.
He also talked about challenges of the single treasury account TSA, identification and enumeration of taxable adults and corporate entities.
The KWIRS boss said that people did not willingly pay tax in the state, adding that the agency had resorted to waiting for them to come for government services when they would be requested to produce evidence of their tax payments before their requests are attended to.
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