Date: 2017-02-10

The Kwara State House of Assembly says the level of compliance of the People of the State to payment of tax is unprecedented.

The Chairman House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Hon. Mashood Bakare made the observation, during the budget defence of Kwara State Internal Revenue Service before the legislature.

Hon Bakare noted with delight that the People of the State had demonstrated that they were law abiding and assured that the House would ensure that the state's Internally Generated Revenue were judiciously utilized to address infrastructural gap in the State.

He praised KWIRS for its innovative in tax collection, noting that the role of the KWIRS had assisted the state government in mitigating against dwindling fortune of the State and Local Governments from the federation account.

He therefore charged the state Revenue Service to consolidate on its performance without unnecessarily bordering the people to make the state self sustaining. The Chairman of the KWIRS, Dr. Muritala Awodun had informed the legislators that his agency was able to achieve N17bn tax collection in 2016 out of N25 bn projection and assured that the agency would attain N34bn target this year.

On the Harmony Holdings and the State Bureau of Statistics, the Chairman disclosed that the state government was committed towards repositioning the Holdings to be more responsive to contemporary challenges, while issues raised by the Permanent Secretary of Bureau of Statistics would be promptly addressed by the House to further enhance the performance of the Bureau.