The Kaduna State Government on Wednesday said it would capture about 60,000 business entities operating in the state on its electronic database.

The Executive Chairman of the State Internal Revenue Service, Malam Mukhtar Ahmed, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna.

Ahmed spoke on the side line of the three-day sensitisation workshop on Fiscal Responsibility and Public Finance Laws that is being enforced in the state.

The workshop, which is the third and final one, was organised for the state Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries and Heads of agencies.

The event was organised by the state Ministry of Finance in collaboration with the World Bank Assisted State Public Sector Governance Reforms and Development Project.

He said that the process had started and already 10,000 small, medium and business outfits had been captured on the agency’s database.

“So far, we have enumerated 60,000 businesses in the state and 10,000 had been captured on our database, while the remaining is being captured.

“We also have close to 77 revenue generating agencies including schools.

“Our target is that by the end of this administration in 2019, we should have 36 agencies automating their revenue generating capacity instead of manual process.

“So that we have their data automated seamlessly and in an efficient manner.” Ahmed said.

On monthly internal generation, the chairman said that the state collected an average of N1.7 billion monthly as against the N1.4 billion monthly collection in 2016.

According to him, the revenue agency had deployed about 1,000 Point Of Sale (POS) machines to various markets and motor parks in Kaduna metropolis as payment options.

Ahmed said similar POS machines would soon be deployed to hospitals in the state to ensure full operation of the cashless policy.

This, he said, was in compliance with the state government Internal Revenue Law 2016 on cashless revenue collection which is in force.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 270 officials drawn from the state and local government civil service attended the sensitisation workshop on the operation of the three laws.

The laws included the Public Finance (Control and Management) Law, March 2016; Public Procurement Law, May 2016, and the Fiscal Responsibility Law, June 2016.

A cross section of the participants commended the state government for the sensitisation and pledged to ensure they were fully operated for effective service delivery to the people of the state.

Most of the participants, who spoke at the close of the event, particularly commended the APC administration in the state for introducing the state Treasury Single Account (TSA) Law.

A World Bank official, Mrs Abimbola Ogunseitan, sensitised the participants on the operation of the three laws.

Ogunseitan, a Procurement Specialist at the bank, said the laws would ensure effective budgeting with well-regulated procurement system that would ensure value for money in the state.

“The purpose of the Public Finance Law is to specify the various funds to be operated by the state and how they are to be managed and controlled using the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

“The law established the legal basis for the Treasury Single Account into which all revenues and monies accruing from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

“This include funds from Excess Crude Account, grants or donations and internally generated funds from taxation shall be paid, and out of which, all expenditure incurred or approved to be incurred shall be defrayed or paid.”

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Mr Idris Nyam, at the close of session, assured that the three laws would ensure accountability and proper management of state and local government funds. (NAN)

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