Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
Chairman, Benue State Internal Revenue Service (BIRS), Terzungwe Atser, has said that his vision is to reposition the tax board and make it the most efficient tax administration in Nigeria.
Atser who stated this while briefing newsmen on his achievements in office in the last five months, said he had set modalities in place to provide an environment where all taxable persons in Benue paid the correct amount of taxes regularly in the most convenient manner at lowest possible cost.
“To realise all this, we desire full financial and human resource autonomy of the service as enshrined in the Benue State Revenue Administration Law of 2015 and the Personal Income Tax Act CAP P8 LFN 2004, Section 88 (2).
“This will enhance independence of the revenue authority, eliminate or minimise political interference, improve staff welfare and motivation. We are building an Integrated Tax Service.”
READ ALSO Wike terminates sale of state-owned power plants by guber challenger
He disclosed that on assumption of office five months ago, he inherited a tax agency that was far below the minimum international standards.
“I inherited a tax administration without any form of tax-payer register, where all processes (tax processes, human resource and financial management processes) are manual.
“Staff motivation was very low as a result of non/delayed promotions and lack of staff training. Inadequate office accommodation and furniture, lack of vehicles, among others.
“There were also problems of multiplicity of taxes collected in Benue markets and highways coupled with illegal collections and road blocks. This resulted to a poor taxpayer perception and incessant strikes by traders.”
The BIRS boss said he was able to correct some of the imbalances in the system and reposition the service by engaging a consultant, (Talenti Nig. Ltd) to enroll all taxable adults on the Benue Social Security Number System which will form the backbone of our electronic taxpayer register.
He said his administration had also, within the confines of the law, reviewed tariffs and revenue heads collected in the markets, a development which he said had led to the suspension of incessant strikes by traders associations in the state.