THISDAY

Nasarawa Moves to Fix Border Tax Breaches

Eyes over N1bn IGR

- James Emejo in Abuja

The Nasarawa State government has finalised plans to address years of border tax breaches by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in a historic initiative that could significan­tly boost its monthly revenue from a mere N100 million to over N1billion.

In partnershi­p with FourCore Technology Solutions Limited, a foremost technology and tax audit firm, the state said it hopes to reclaim arrears of taxes paid by border residents within Abuja particular­ly the Mararraba/Karu axis by putting the residency tax law into effect.

Speaking during the signing of a memorandum of understand­ing (MoU) between the state government and the tax consultant in Lafia, the state capital, Nasarawa State Deputy Governor, Mr. Silas Ali Agara described the initiative as “great and historic” for the state.

He said the administra­tion of Governor Tanko Almakura had been resolute and passionate about seeking alternativ­e sources of funding for the state whereby its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) could sustain it for up to four months without resource to the Federation Account.

He decried a situation whereby the state, which shares the largest corridor with the FCT has 50 percent of the people who work in Abuja residing in the state and yet pay taxes to the former.

He said the partnershi­p with FourCore Technology will help address decades of breach of the residency law by the FCT and provide enormous resources for the state to meet its developmen­tal obligation­s.

He said: “We are all conversant with the residency law, which stipulates that all workers are supposed to be remitting their tax to their

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