In the bid to enhance its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), the Delta State Government on Friday announced plans to begin the collection of tax from all informal sectors of the state from April 24, 2017.

The informal sector include National Association of Professional Carpenters, National Union of Road Transport Workers, National Automobile Technicians Association, Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Nigeria Tillers Association, among others in the state.

The State Commissioner for Finance, Olorogun David Edevbie, made the disclosure in an interactive section with journalists. He said that the State Government had identified associations and unions as pivotal to generating significant collections from the informal sector in view of boosting the state revenue base.

Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Mr. Cornelius Semiteje, the commissioner decried the dwindling allocation of the state and espoused the need to look inwards in order to actualise the prosperity for all Deltans promised by the incumbent government.

He said the state would work directly with the leadership of the various groups in the bid to get their members’ buy-in which should eventually generate a multiplier effect in tax collections in the near medium to long term.

“In addition to tax officers visiting the various associations, all offices of the Board of Internal Revenue would have a desk and representatives to handle registrations and all enquiries. Upon registration, individuals and/or group leaders are given a unique code that must be presented when making payments in the bank which is used to update records.”

In their various comments, both the Chairman, Delta State Board of Internal Revenue, Sir Monday Onyeme, and the Executive Assistant to the Governor on Taxation, Chief Frank Nwugo, disclosed that the state tax base was constituted by Pay As You Earn (PAYE) formula of civil servants, which according to them, amounts to only about 800,000 in a state with over four million people.

“Taking a peep at the current economic reality, there is invariably nothing the state government can achieve. Our onus hence is to make sure that the tax is collected. We are setting up sensitisation machinery to promote the idea. But then, any resistance will be matched with equal enforcement,” they added.

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