Govt. warns against non-remittance of revenue

The Abia Government on Wednesday warned that it would not condone illegal collection and non-remittance of revenue in the bid to boost the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

Mr Obinna Oriaku, the state Commissioner for Finance, gave the warning in Umuahia on Monday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Oriaku, who said the state generates N2.2 billion from IGR while its wage bill stood at N3billion, added:

"Most people see Abia as a state that should be able to stand on its feet without federal allocation.

"History has it that the IGR realised from Ariaria market alone was sufficient for the payment of teachers salaries in the old Imo state.''

Oriaku said that this had made the state to resort to generating an accurate data base as well as re-engineering the IGR process.

"We have understudied what states like Lagos did to achieve giant strides in the area of IGR and discovered that they have been able to harness the potentials of IGR through automation,’’ he said.

The commissioner said strategies had been evolved to ensure that all funds meant for the state were not lost to revenue collection contractors or touts.

Oriaku also said tax payment would henceforth be done through the "PayDirect’’ platform which would generate e-receipt for tax clearance certificate.