By Hassana Yakubu
Kaduna – The Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KADIRS), says it is targeting to generate N25 billion revenue from internal sources in 2020.
Chairman of the service, Dr Zaid Abubakar made the disclosure during the agency’s 2020 budget defence before the House of Assembly Committee on Finance.
Abubakar said that as at October, KADIRS had exceeded its 2019 revenue target of N19 billion by generating N22 billion.
He called on all residents to pay their taxes as at when due, adding that KADIRS has been sensitizing tax payers to understand the importance of paying taxes which has remained a challenge to the service.
Abubakar also cautioned the residents to pay their taxes through the right channels, to avoid paying into wrong hands.
The chairman said the Tax Codification Law which established KADIRS has criminalised cash payment.
The state Finance Commissioner, Bashir Saidu, said the ministry is planning to improve revenue generation, noting that a state will not function if its revenue generation is poor.
“We want to raise revenue to such a level that we will be able to pay salaries, pay overhead and meet other obligations,’’ he said.
Also, the Executive Secretary, Mortgage and Foreclosure Authority, Malam Yahaya Lere, said the agency was meant to create enabling environment for residents to access mortgages on single digit interest rate.
“We want everyone to own a house especially the low income earners.
“To achieve this, the state government had recently signed a tripartite agreement with the Nigerian Mortgage Banks whereby N3 billion was injected to finance the mortgages.
“The time for the kick off will soon be made known,’’ he said.
(NAN)
