14th December, 2017
The Enugu State Government on Thursday said it raised N18 billion as Internally Generated Revenue(IGR) in 10 months.
Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi made the disclosure while inaugurating the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service (ESIRS) building.
He attributed the improvement of the IGR profile to the introduction of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) collection system.
“Our collection in terms of IGR increased from N14 billion in 2016 to N18 billion within the first 10 months of 2017,’’ he said.
The governor, who also inaugurated the first stage of the ESIRS automation project, released five operational vehicles and two motorcycles to the service.
He said that implementation of the TSA and other measures in the last 18 months was responsible for the tremendous increase in the state IGR profile.
“The trickling effect of this development is being felt in the massive infrastructural and social amenities development in every nook and cranny of the state, especially, at the grassroots,’’ he said.
On the new automation system in ESIRS, the governor said that the “days and era of manual IGR collection by hand or other proxy method are over.”
Ugwuanyi said that the automated-system, being the first stage of registration to get Enugu State Social Benefit Number (ENSB), would help to completely eliminate loopholes in the IGR system.
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He, however, assured the residents of the state that the system would benefit them more as the state IGR continued to grow.
Earlier, the Chairman of ESIRS, Mr Emeka Odo, lauded Ugwuanyi for his administration’s support to the service.
Odo said that the service had embarked on a four-point reform to reposition the service, which included re-orientation of staff, intensive tax recovery drive, operation trace and recover and aggressive tax enforcement.
He noted that the major objective of the automated system was to install a full blown Integrated tax management system where the process of revenue assessment, collection and accounting was automated.
“We wish to reassure Your Excellency that you have laid a solid foundation for a sustained growth of IGR in the state.
“We share in your vision of rapid socio-economic transformation of our dear state; we are committed to playing our own part in the realisation of that vision,’’ he said.
Highlights of the event were the registration of the governor on the ESBN platform.