The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KDIRS)

  • KDIRS, ABU Zaria to settle N6bn tax suit out of court

    A Tax Tribunal sitting in Kaduna on Thursday granted a request by the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, to settle the 4-year long case of non-remittance of Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) tax, amounting to N6 billion out of court.

    The Kaduna State Board of Internal Revenue had on January 16, 2014 instituted a case against the ABU for failure to remit the PAYE tax from 2007 to 2012.

    Counsel to the revenue service, Mr Francis Kozah, prayed the tribunal, chaired by Umar Adamu, to ask the institution to pay all outstanding arrears, including interest and penalty as stated by law.

    Kozah, however, told the tribunal that ABU had earlier requested for out-of-court settlement and that the board had agreed to hear them.

    He said that the sitting was scheduled for the first week of December.

    He also informed the tribunal of the change of nomenclature from Kaduna State Board of Internal Revenue to Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KDIRS).

    This followed the passage of the Kaduna State Tax Codification and consolidation Law in 2016.

    Counsel to ABU, Mr M Garba, requested that the case be adjourned for four weeks to allow the parties sit and resolve the dispute.

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    Responding, the tribunal chairman regretted that the case had been on hold since January 2014 due to the non-constitution of the tribunal.

    Adamu said that if the parties failed to settle issue, the tribunal would take a decision to proceed to hear the matter.

    He then, adjourned the case to the second week of January 2019, adding that the parties would be notified of the substantive date in due course.

    Similarly, the tribunal also adjourned the case between KDIRS and Kaduna Polytechnic to December 12, over the institution’s non-remittance of PAYE to the tune of N3.4 billion to KDIRS.

    The amount was the cumulation of non-remittance of PAYE to the Kaduna State Government from 2007 to 2012.

    Counsel to Kaduna Polytechnic, Mr Andrew Nwako, appealed to the tribunal to give both parties two weeks to settle the issue out of court.

    Kozah, who represented KDIRS did not object and the chairman of the tribunal granted the request.

  • Kaduna generated N26.53bn IGR in 2017, targets N42bn in 2018

    Kaduna generated N26.53bn IGR in 2017, targets N42bn in 2018

    The Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service ( KDIRS ) said on Tuesday that it collected N26.53 billion as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in 2017.

    KDIRS Executive Chairman, Mukhtar Ahmed who made announced this at a news conference in Kaduna, added that the state targeted N42 billion in 2018.

    Ahmed said that the N26.53 billion represented 52 per cent of the N50.2 billion targeted for the year and an increase of N3.5 billion from the N23 billion generated in 2016.

    He added that taxes constituted 51 per cent of the revenue followed by levies and fees.

    He explained that the state did not meet its revenue target because of certain government policies designed to reduce the burden of tax payers.

    He, however, said that measures were being put in place to ensure that this year’s target was met.

    He identified truancy, shortage of manpower and incomplete automation of tax payment in revenue generating agencies as major challenges of revenue collection in the state.

    According to him, the service will soon complete the recruitment of new staff,  mostly youths, to inject fresh blood into the system to improve revenue collection in 2018.

    “Once the recruitment is completed, we will deploy them to the field, to boost our revenue collection instead of using money agents who are sometimes dubious.

    “We will give our staff target, equip them with Point of Sales (PoS) and tricycle to penetrate local markets and directly collect revenue for the state.

    “Not only that, we will also ensure full automation of revenue collection in all the 68 revenue generating agencies in the state.”

    The chairman commended tax payers in the state for their support to the government to ensure that revenue was raised for development.

    He said that 95 per cent of challenges in revenue collection was with the tax collectors, adding that efforts were being made to address the anomaly.

    On his part, KDIRS Legal Adviser, Mr Francis Kozah, reminded tax payers of the existing tax law in the state, adding that the service would prosecute all defaulters in accordance with the law.

    Kozah said that the revenue agency recorded 25 criminal cases relating to tax payments in 2017.

    He also said that 50 cases of tax default were taken to court in 2017 out of which 35 were at various level of prosecution. (NAN

  • Kaduna generated N9.6b IGR from January to June – Official

    Kaduna generated N9.6b IGR from January to June – Official

    The Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KDIRS) said it generated N9.6 billion Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) between January and June.

    Muktar Ahmed, the Executive Chairman of KDIRS, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Kaduna that workers constituted the largest contributors followed by Kaduna State Geographic Information Service.

    Ahmed identified other sources to include hospital bills and school fees.

    He said that the state had three to four million potential tax payers, but expressed regret that only about 400,000 were in the KDIRS revenue net.

    Ahmed said that efforts were being made to bring all eligible tax payers into the tax net to boost the state revenue generation and provide better services to the people.

    He, however, acknowledged that the N9.6 billion IGR was significantly short of the N27 billion expected to have been generated in the first half of the year to meet the N54 billion targeted this year.

    “We were actually hoping to generate about N11 billion in the sale of government properties which would have boosted our revenue to N22 billion in the first six months.

    “But the process is ongoing and we are hoping that it will soon pull through.

    “Another revenue line that we have not fully tapped is the land use charge that every real property owner in the state will pay.

    “The state executive council has approved the land use charge rates for 2017 which is N10, 000 for people with real properties in Government Reserved Areas (GRAs) and N1000 for those in suburb areas.

    “I am optimistic that by the time we start collecting the land use charges, our revenue generation will significantly improve, ” he said.

    The chairman said that local government areas remained major challenge in revenue collection for KDIRS as their officials were still collecting cash in local government areas.

    “In the process, tax payers are short-changed. We will not allow that to continue. We have sent out intelligence to fish out those involved.

    “Already, seven officials including VIO officials in our motor vehicle registration offices have been arrested and charged to court for forgery of vehicle documents and criminal conspiracy.

    “I assure you, we will soon clean KDIRS of bad eggs and block all leakages so that the government will get its due revenue,” he said.
    Ahmed thanked tax payers in the state for the cooperation so far and appeal for more support to move the state forward.

  • Kaduna generates N6.7bn IGR from Jan to April – Official

    Kaduna generates N6.7bn IGR from Jan to April – Official

    The Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KDIRS) said  it generated N6.7 billion as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) between January and April.

    The Executive Chairman of KDIRS, Muktar Ahmed, announced this in Kaduna on Thursday at a news conference to mark the second anniversary of Gov. Nasir El-Rufai led-administration.

    Ahmed said the state’s monthly revenue generation had increased from an average of N1.4 billion in 2016 to N1.7 billion in 2017.

    He reiterated the commitment of the service to attain its monthly revenue target of N4 billion.

    The KDIRS chairman said that the target was achievable, considering the efficiency in tax collection, courtesy of the new tax law in the state.

    According to Ahmed, the tax law has designated KDIRS as the only revenue collection agency in the state.

    He said that discussions were ongoing with the 77 revenue generating agencies in the state to abide by the provision of the law, to improve efficiency of tax collection.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Kaduna State Tax (Codification and Consolidation) Law 2016 has automated all revenue collection and criminalised physical cash collection of tax.

    The chairman, however, acknowledged challenges being experienced in the process, particularly in rural areas where there were no banks.

    He said that the service had employed the services of money agents certified by the Central Bank of Nigeria and would soon deploye Point of Sales (POS) in all rural communities to ease tax collection.

    Ahmed said people’s negative attitude towards paying tax was the bane of collection in the country.

    “Tax is a word many Nigerians do not want to hear. Our attitude towards paying tax is not encouraging at all.

    “Maybe because tax payers hardly see what their money is used for. But this has changed with the coming of the APC administration.

    Ahmed said that Gov. Nasir El-Rufai had mandated the service to set aside N1 billion monthly for infrastructure across the state.

    “As you can see, hospitals are being renovated, roads are being repaired, drainage systems are being constructed and several other ongoing infrastructure across the state.

    “This is a conviction that tax payers’ money is being injected into infrastructure development in the state.

    “Therefore, people no longer have any reason not to pay their tax consistently and as at when due.”

    He disclosed that tax payers owed the state N5 billion in arears, stressing that KDIRS would utilise legal means to ensure that every tax payer met the tax obligations.

    The KDIRS chairman advised tax payers to, in their own interest, endeavour to pay taxes or face legal action.