Date: 2017-02-02

Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS) has said that it would go extra mile in the enforcement of rules and polices guiding tax collection in 2017.

Executive Chairman of KWIRS, Muritala Awodun, who stated this at an interaction session with newsmen in Ilorin, said the service, which was established in 2015 relaxed the enforcement in 2016 as a result of recession and because people were just getting to appreciate the new approach government introduced to tax collection.

Awodun, who said that the people are now more informed and better appreciate the need to pay tax, disclosed that the agency would be more firm in enforcing the payment while remaining friendly in its approach. He disclosed that the KWIRS budgeted N26billion as revenue to be collected in 2016 but ended up with N17.4billion.

He gave highlight of the budget and the amount collected per quarter of the year as N4.2b budget against N3.41b revenue collected in first quarter, N6.6bn against N4.98bn(2nd quarter) N7.2b as against N4.18 (3rd quarter) and N8billion against N4.8bn(4th quarter).

Awodun, however, said the effort was commendable when compared to the N7.2b realised in 2015.

He assured that the revenue will increase this year, given the arrangement in place.