Kwara generates N7.7bn revenue in 4 months

KWARA State internal revenue service (KWIRS) has generated a sum of N7.7 billion between January and April 2018.

Speaking at a quarterly media briefing in Ilorin on Wednesday, executive chairman of the agency, Mr. Muritala Awodun, said that the sum was against N7.4 billion realised in 2017 from taxpayers.

The KWIRS boss, who said that the state would need to generate internal revenue of between N4 and N5billion monthly before it could be viable, added that the state had the potential to generate N5billion monthly which it requires to survive without federal revenue allocation.

He, however, explained that the state could not yet realise the potential because the innovation by which the service operates which ensure greater efficiency in revenues collection was relatively new with the residents who he said are yet to fully adjust to it.

He said with time the feat can be achieved while the service employs a gradual process to get the residents adapted to the innovation and elicit their cooperation to its operation.

He also said that money realized in the first four months of 2018 was below the budgetary projection of N11 billion, adding that the agency realized N2.2 billion in January, N2.39 billion in February, N1.8 billion in March and a sum of N1.29 billion in April 2018, totalling N7.7 billion.

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Mr. Awodun said that the agency carried out 10 community impact activities aimed at alleviating identified challenges in some communities within the period.

He said that the agency renovated marriage registry in the Ministry of Women Affairs, distributed school bags in the Kwara North district areas, cleared drainages, provided vehicles to NURTW, provided borehole to Ifelodun community at Alagbado, as well as the endowment of prizes and awards at the Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete.