Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, has said that the state is not doing well on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), stressing that Abia needs to put in place an efficient and transparent revenue collection system.

He tasked revenue generation officials to put on their thinking caps and devise strategies to improve the States IGR collection system.

Otti, who gave the charge at a 2 -day revenue retreat organized by the State government for heads of revenue-generating agencies as well as Directors of Finance of Ministries, Departments and Agencies , MDAs, stated that the lofty objectives of his administration cannot be achieved if it lacks funds to accomplish them.

He urged the revenue officials to come up with modest strategies that would shore up the IGR profile of the state where the government can depend less on handouts from federal allocations.

He said; Lets not think yesterday anymore because some of the things we are familiar with are changing rapidly. I am not too sure that anybody saw robotics and artificial intelligence coming in the last 20 years but it is real here today. It therefore becomes very important that retreats like this are held because the way governments run is that expenditure comes from income.

It would amount to irresponsibility on the part of government if it fails to put in place mechanisms to collect levies due it. This retreat is apt as it is expected that at the end of it, things should be done differently.

So if we as government fail to transparently and honestly put in place mechanisms that would help us collect the revenues that are due us,I believe that is irresponsibility on the part of government or may be sabotage. It is in the light of this that I believe that the retreat that is holding here today is well-appointed and placed.

As a State,we are not doing well in our Internally Generated Revenue and I believe that the problem is that we have not put in a lot of thinking into the collection process and we have not put in place an efficient and transparent collection process. In keeping in to our mantra that taxes are government share of the prosperity it has created amongst the populace, he added.

On the expectations from the retreat, the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mr. Kingsley Anosike, said government wants to restore Abias glory as centre of commerce and global economic hub shortly as well as broaden the State revenue base and positively change the States revenue culture and possibilities.

Earlier, Chairman, Abia State Board of Internal Revenue , ABIRS, Prof. Udochukwu Ogbonna, who described revenue generation as key to the success of the government, explained that the essence of the retreat is to share ideas on issues of revenue generation, stressing that low knowledge of tax among the people and lack of training among revenue-generating staff are responsible for the low IGR of the State. (Vanguard)