Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara has assured the people of the state that no additional tax burden would be imposed on them as a result of the new tax collection method.

Ahmed said this on Wednesday when the National President of the Chartered Institute of Nigeria (CIT), Dr (Mrs) Olateju Somorin visited him at the Government House in Ilorin.

He said that the new taxation approaches would not translate into additional tax burden on the people. According to the governor, the operations of the newly established Kwara State Internally Revenue Service would be benchmarked against best practices.

"This new phase is premised on the tripod system of changing people, process and technology taking into cognizance the need to get the desired results. "We are not unaware of the need to ensure that professionals drive the activity of taxation in the right capacities.

"We will ensure that standards are maintained to ensure that we are able to get the right levels of inflow for Kwara State for the right development agenda," he said. The governor said that appropriate taxation culture was necessary for the economic growth in Nigeria in the face of dwindling earnings from crude oil.

He said the dwindling monthly fiscal allocation was taking a toll on the economic fortunes of states and the country at large. As a result of the dwindling allocation, Gov Ahmed said states must exploit new forms and areas of taxation in order to stay afloat.

Ahmed pointed out that taxation has not been given the right place in Nigeria, especially in helping to ensure the growth of the local economy "It is imperative that we do not leave things out by ensuring that taxation is given the rightful place and taken to all levels across the nooks and crannies of the country.

"No meaningful development can take place without exploring and exploiting new aspects of taxation. "We are at a cross road at the moment in this country with our over reliance on oil as our economic mainstay," he said.

Ahmed explained that his administration was embracing new approaches to taxation through the deployment of new technologies by well trained professionals in order to drive enhanced Internally Generated Revenue for economic growth Earlier, the National President of CIT, Somorin, commended the state government for establishing the new Kwara State Internal Revenue Service to enhance tax collection in the State.

Somorin also commended the governor on other developmental agenda, particularly the environmental sanitation programme as well as the peace agenda.

The C.I.T National President solicited the assistance of the state government in ensuring that staff of the state Internal Revenue Service attend the association's tax conference slated for May next year in Abuja. (NAN)