The Nasarawa State government has announced the sum of N16.8bn as internally generated revenue for the year 2021 after ceasing the use of manual receipts and introducing a central billing system for the collection of taxes in the state.
The Executive Chairman of the State Internal Revenue Service, Ahmed Muhammad said it has become a necessity that they must introduce the central billing system because the time of using of manual receipts for the collection of taxes has turned to a source for corrupt individuals to make themselves richer with the state government funds.
Mr. Muhammad noted that before his appointment into office four years ago, the highest revenue that was generated by the state government every year was N6bn.
He said that with the initiatives that have been recently put in place, the state was able to generate the sum of N16.8bn for the year 2021.
He said, “We were able to achieve this feat because the state government has banned the use of manual receipts. We now have a platform that we use which is called the central billing system.
“If you make any payment on the central billing system, you can print an online receipt. The use of manual receipts was an avenue by some corrupt individuals to deprive the government of its funds.
“Anybody could just go and print receipts anywhere. But with the new system, you will not get receipts unless you make payment through the platform.”
He said the state government was coming together with the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services to look for individuals who were still using manual receipts to collect taxes from residents of the state despite its ban.
Muhammad said, “Apart from the monitoring team that we have here, we are also working in collaboration with the police and the DSS to see that we arrest those issuing manual receipts. We have made several arrests and most of them have been charged to court.
