The Benue State Government is set to forward an amendment of the Benue Revenue Law to the State House of Assembly.
The aim of the amendment bill is to plug loopholes in the existing laws that have led to leakages and to reduce multiple taxation.
This was part of the resolutions reached by the enlarged stakeholders after a long-drawn meeting with Governor Samuel Ortom.
In a communique the Governor read after the meeting, on Tuesday, (November 30th, 2021), the stakeholders acknowledged the depreciation in revenue generation accruing to the State and pledged to co-operate with the Board of Internal Revenue Service, BIRS, to end the trend.
The communique read in parts: “After exhaustive deliberations, the meeting resolved as follows:
“That the State Government through the Executive Council will without delay send an amendment to the State House of Assembly to plug the loopholes in the existing law that have left gaps for revenue leakages.
“That all revenues collected by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) must be paid into the State Consolidated Revenue Fund according to the law.
“That Local Government Chairmen must desist henceforth from multiple taxations in their council areas, thereby discouraging traders from coming into Benue State to buy produce which has led to waste and decline in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)’ base of the State.
“That some MDAs which have formed the habit of diverting monies collected from PAYE should desist from this unwholesome practice as it contravenes the State revenue generation laws.
“That illegal revenue collection checkpoints should be dismantled forthwith as any person or group of persons caught operating such illegal revenue collection checkpoints shall be punished.
“That the Office of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) should convene a meeting between the Board of Internal Revenue Service (BIRS) and Local Government Chairmen to know the revenue items accruing to Local Government and State to streamline the collection of same.
“Any person irrespective of how highly placed you may be who violates the Revenue Law shall be sanctioned,” the communique stated.
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