The Plateau State Internal Revenue Service (PSIRS) says it has generated over N7 billion between July and September.
The Chairman of the service, Mr Dashe Arlat, who disclosed this while briefing newsmen on Tuesday in Jos, said the figure showed an increase of more than N5 billion over the amount the organisation realised in the second quarter.
During the second quarter, Arlat said, the service generated over N 2.196 billion.
He said the service was able to boost its IGR in the third quarter through various strategies and polices it deployed such as enhanced data collection, aggressive tax auditing and investigation.
The other strategies he said, were aggressive MLA enforcement in the transport sector in the entire state and sustained engagements with the various business associations and trade unions.
According to the chairman, the service also intensified tax assessment in both the formal and informal sectors, and recorded over 54 per cent compliance from the formal sector and 60 per cent compliance from the informal sector which remitted their taxes as and when due.
He said the service also embarked on aggressive tax payers’ education and sensitisation to boost its IGR.
He said that with the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the State Government recognised the suffering of businesses across the state and introduced palliative tax relief measures to help mitigate the adverse effects of the pandemic on businesses.
Arlat listed the measures as extension of timelines for filling of annual returns, waiver of penalties and interests charged due to late returns and reduction of interest for late payment.
The other measures, he said, were the granting of one per cent bonus to all tax payers who filed in their returns early, the suspension of enforcement of outstanding tax liabilities and the reduction of taxes payable by the informal sector businesses by 50 per cent.
He said with the decline in the price of crude oil due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, taxation and charging fees for services were the major means of revenue generation.
The chairman said that strategies must be evolved to ensure that revenues were harnessed and collected from the little activities going on during the pandemic to keep the wheels of the government turning.
He further suggested that a post pandemic strategy must be developed and deployed to ensure that business activities resumed seamlessly after the disease would have abated.
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