Dr. Zaid Abubakar, Executive Chairman, KIRS

By Maduabuchi Nmeribeh/Kano

Kano State Internal Revenue Services (KIRS)  has targeted to generate N120 billion as its benchmark for the 2025 fiscal year, as it has blocked all sources from where  Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is being diverted.

Dr Zaid Abubakar, the Executive Chairman of KIRS, told journalists on Wednesday that given the number of international markets and other corporate organisations in Kano, KIRS will surely meet its target of between N100 billion and N120 billion in 2025.

Dr Abubakar decried that Kano lost billions of naira through illegal revenue collection strategies, as funds made to be channelled into government coffers were diverted into unknown accounts.

He revealed that between 2015 and 2022, no proper records of IGR were generated in the state.

He stated this during the review of generated revenue in the past years.

“The review is also aimed at strengthening staff discipline and work processes for service delivery and enhancing taxpayer engagement, including automation and technology implementation, as well as cross-departmental collaboration,” he added.

Abubakar further stated that to block the leakages, KIRS  introduced a Single Central Revenue Account  (SCRA) to harmonise all the collections from different sources into one account.

He said: “We have a revenue target of N75 billion in this year’s budget, but as a management of revenue service, we have increased and jerked up the target to N100 billion, and we are even aspiring to make it up to N120 billion, having seen the abundant potentials of the state.

“With the potential, as the centre of commerce with five major markets and population, Kano is supposed to be making up to N300 billion per annum.”

According to him, KIRS  has also replaced most of the inherited unserious officials with young, agile persons who are ready to work and transform the architecture of revenue collection in the state in the first quarter of the year.

Abubakar added that KIRS management has also reformed the views of the tax administrators to be able to respond to the needs and yearnings of the public when it comes to the issue of revenue collection and assessment efforts.

According to him,  the Kano State government is set to review all the revenue generation laws as part of an effort to enhance the revenue base of the state.

He said that Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf had already approved the review of such laws before the end of the first quarter of this year.

“We have to rewrite the laws because approval has been given by His Excellency Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, which we hope to do before the end of the first quarter of this year,” he added.

He said reviewing the tax laws was necessary to enhance overall revenue generation in the state as the existing tax laws are obsolete and ineffective.

He also hinted that. KIRS has introduced taxpayer engagement as part of measures to ensure that all taxpayers are fully sensitised on the activities on the activities of the service.

“The taxpayer engagement is aimed at coming closer to taxpayers to reduce the work burden on our staff as we have to closely engage them,’ he said.

He commended Governor Yusuf for the support and cooperation he had been giving the service, which he said had made their duty easier.

In a goodwill message, the Special Adviser on Revenue, Prof. Ibrahim Barde, urged the service to address some of the challenges bedevilling revenue generation in the state.

He said the state government is considering the possibility of introducing Agricultural produce revenue.