Date: 2017-02-13

The Kwara State Internal Revenue Services (KWIRS) has projected for the year 2017 a sum of N664 million as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the entire 16 Local Government Areas (LGAs).

The KWIRS is a body constituted some two years ago by Kwara state Governor Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed to replace the state's internal Revenue Board, in order to boost the revenue collection capability of the state.

Due to the efficacy of the KWIRS at opening up more collection points in the state with a stunning turn over of more than 300 per cent in its first year of existence, the revenue collection body in February 2016 sealed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the 16 LGAs to collect IGR on their behalf.

The development like it existed under the state, saw an upsurge of about 200 percent in the IGRs of the councils. The high point of the soul of the MoU with the councils is the sharing formula between them and the KWIRS put at a ratio of 30 per cent (KWIRS) to 70 per cent (councils) under an arrangement christened Joint Treasury Committee (JTC).

According to the Chairman of the KWIRS Dr Muritala Awodun at the weekend in Ilorin after a meeting with the 16 chairmen of Transition Implementation Committee (TIC), the parley became imperative due to a recent change in leadership at the councils. The TICs took over from the elected chairmen but whose tenure oof offices had since expired. The meeting equally have in attendance supportive staff at the councils such as Revenue and Budget Officers.

Awodun said, "the new TIC chairmen came in towards the end of last year but they promptly looked at what we had done in the past year making them to consent to the existing formula to enable us prepare for this new year.

"Therefore KWIRS as a body for harmonisation of revenue collection in the state to boost its revenue capacities needed a renewal of relationship with the TIC Chairmen hence the reason for this meeting. Already, we have earmarked the collection of a sum of N664 million this year as IGR for the 16 councils. All the relevant supportive staff of the council were also at the the meeting."

Awodun while reminiscing on how the initial parley with the councils' chairmen on the need to allow the KWIRS to collect their IGR on their behalf had hit the rock due to its unprecedented nature, said the relative success on the experiment had at present made the councils to cede to the body 100 per cent revenue collection rights on their behalf.

On some of the staff of the councils who still duplicate the efforts of the KWIRS in revenue collection, Awodun faulted the development just as he disclosed that only the experienced ones and technically competent councils staff are retained to collaborate with his staff during revenue collection exercises.

In his reaction, the state's Chairman, Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) Alhaji Isaka Danmeiromu praised the collaborative gestures on revenue collections just as he believed that the develoment would assist greatly in churning out the much needed dividends of democracy to the rural dwellers.

Danmeiromu while describing as nauseating the haphazard springing up of motor parks in some parts of Ilorin, said the concerned councils would intervene via the provisions of modern motor parks in order to stem the tide.