27th March, 2021
By Philip Yatai/Kaduna
A delicacy seller in Kaduna, Hajiya Zainab Mai-Masa, was the surprise winner Friday of the 2020 Micro Business Tax Award.
The award was given by the Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KADIRS).
Mai-Masa, a 60-year-old widow sells Waina, a spongy rice cake northern delicacy at Signboard, Unguwan Dosa Junction, Kaduna.
She paid N100,000 as presumptive tax in 2020.
The waina seller was among the 23 taxpayers, revenue generating agencies, and other officials that were honoured by KADIRS at its 2020 Grand Dinner and Award Night on Friday.
KADIRS chairman, Dr Zaid Abubakar, explained that her business falls under presumptive tax in the informal sector and required to pay N50,000 by law.
“The highest tax any micro business owner ever paid in the state was N50,000, but she decided to pay N100,000 voluntarily.
“This is worthy of recognition and an encouragement for other micro business owners to emulate and join other voluntary taxpayers in performing their civic duty of paying tax as and when due,” he said.
The excited Mai-Masa thanked KADIRS for the recognition, adding that she was motivated to pay the tax because of the visible infrastructural development taking place across the state.
The KADIRS Chairman explained that the essence of the award was to motivate taxpayers in the state to continue to pay taxes voluntarily as and when due.
He added that the initiative, the second in the series, was to encourage staff of KAIRS to rededicate themselves to duty and make the needed sacrifice in meeting the mandate of the agency.
He said that the idea was to also entrench inter agency collaboration on revenue generation and collection between all revenue generating agencies in the state and KADIRS.
“With the support of all stakeholders our IGR has continued to record unprecedented growth from N12 billion in 2012 to over N50 billion in 2020 despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic.
“For us to do more this year and beyond the award was to recognise outstanding taxpayers.
“The first category is for the taxpayers, the second for the collaborating Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and the third category is the staff of the service.
The fourth category is for technical partners who fill the gap in our capacity to deliver on our mandate,” he said.
Gov. Nasir El-Rufai got the Most Voluntary Compliance Award and Lifetime Achievement Award, while the Most Efficient Filing, Direct Assessment (DA) Award went to Alhaji Baba Abubakar.
The Highest Taxpayer, DA, Award went to retired Lt. Gen. Mohammad Wushishi.
The Nigerian Breweries Plc received the Highest Taxpayer, Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) Award, Sintax Nigeria Ltd. got the Most Efficient Filing, PAYE, Award, while Mother Cat Nigeria Ltd. received the Highest Withholding Taxpayer Award.
Mr Abdullahi Zuntu received the Best Revenue Officer Award; Abdulqadir Musa received the Most Discipline Staff Award, while Jamilu Muazu received the Most Hardworking Staff.
Muhammad Ibrahim received the Best Supporting Staff Award, Phoebe Andrew got the Best Dressed Staff Award, while the Best Area Revenue Office Award went to Doka West Area Office.
The Executive Chairman’s Award went to KADIRS Account and Finance Department.
The KAD ICT Hub received the Most Innovative Service Award while InteliWorx Technologies got the Highest Generating Service Provider Award.
The Kaduna State Urban and Property Development Agency received the Most Improved MDA Award, while Kaduna Markets Development and Management Company and Kaduna Environment Protection Agency trailed in 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively.
The Highest Revenue Generating MDA Award, excluding KADIRS, went to the Ministry of Finance; the Kaduna State Geographical Information Service came second while Kaduna State Water Corporation received the third-place award.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Technology got the Most Collaborative MDA Award.
El-Rufai, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Dr Hadiza Balarabe, commended KADIRS for the outstanding performance and for consistently raising the bar of IGR collection in the state.
He assured taxpayers that their monies were being put to good use with the massive infrastructural development and improvement in the quality of health and education services in the state.
“I like it when I keep hearing people say, “I got lost when I came to Kaduna”. I want people to continue getting lost because of the massive transformation going on in the state under our Urban Renewal Projects,” he said.