Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani-Bello, has solicited for support from the Federal Government to improve the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) through appropriate tax remittance by public and private workers.

Governor Sani-Bello made the appeal when he and some members of his cabinet paid a visit to the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, at the Federal Ministry of Finance Headquarters in Abuja.

He disclosed that the state government losses N15 billion annually to Federal Capital Territory through wrongful tax remittances annually.

The Governor, who noted that the state was generating about N400 million monthly as IGR at the moment, said that about 95,000 public and private workers in Abuja reside in Niger State, were paying their tax to FCT.

“This has affected the state tremendously especially in Suleja where we have infrastructure deficit because of the people that resides in Suleja and work in Abuja.

“We have carried out a enumeration and it’s clear that a lot of taxes due for Niger state are paid by the office of the Accountant Generation of the Federation to FCT.

“We need revenue to complete the infrastructure decay and funding, if not the state will find it difficult to cope and maintain its basic infrastructure and federal facilities and social structures in the state,” he said.

Sani-Bello appealed to the minister to ensure that taxes deducted from salaries of federal civil servants staying in Niger were paid to the state.

He enjoined the minister to direct other federal government agencies to commence remittances directly to Niger State Government.

Responding, Adeosun explained that one of the fundamentals of tax payment was that there must be a link between the tax payment and the services. She noted that wrongful tax remittance was a serious problem that was yet to be resolved in the country.

The Minister commended the Niger State Government for the enumeration to come up with figures and facts on tax and gave assurance that the issue of wrongful remittance of tax would be communicated to the office of the Accountant General of Federation to ensure paid directly to the state.

Adeosun described as regrettable that issue of wrongful tax remittance still persists in the country, saying that losing over N1 billion a month was a great loss to any state.

She said that the federal government would ensure fairness and ensure that there was a link between tax payment and services and a standing order as that was the only way to encourage people to pay tax.

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