Federal Allocation not enough to develop Kaduna State –Yero

From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

Kaduna State Governor, Alhaji Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, has said the allocation from Federal Government is not sufficient to develop the state hence the need to improve the internal generated revenue. He stated this while launching the Point of Sales (POS) machines in Kaduna yesterday.

Governor Yero said the approved  allocation to the state is getting smaller for the state expenditure and the need for the state government to wake up and improve on other sources of revenue, such as taxes, land rates  and vat.

 “Kaduna state revenue, when I was the commissioner of finance was around 280 million Naira annually and during my tenure we introduced methods that increased the revenue generation to one billion Naira and I must say we have stayed two long at that one billion Naira mark,

hence the need for the POS machines to check the diversion of revenue accrued to the state,” he said.

Governor Yero also disclosed that very soon that very soon project to areas in the state will be carried based on the amount of revenue generated from the area. According to him the state to stop the practice if some areas generating revenue and the revenue is used to develop other areas who have refused to pay their taxes.

In his own remarks  the Northern Regional Manager of Skye Bank PLC, Alhaji Kauru Mohammed, said Skye Bank as the key partner to the venture would ensure that the POS policy increase the revenue generation of Kaduna State tremendously.

 Alhaji Mohammed added that the POS machines will block all leakages in revenue generation and also encourage residents to pay their taxes because they will get immediate receipt at the point of payment, adding that gone are the days of coming back for your receipt after some days of payment.

“During our test run from August to date, we have collected over 50 million Naira as revenue for the state and we assure that the revenue will increase as more people get to know of the use of POS machines,” he said.

In his own remarks, the executive chairman of Board of Internal Revenue, Kaduna state. Alhaji Ahmed Jibril said the POS project is  one of Governor Yero’s project to increase the revenue generating of the state He assured that the vision of increasing the internal generated revenue in the state would sustained by the board.