Plateau Records over N31 billion as IGR in 2024, Targets N52 billion in 2025.

Timothy Alamba

Plateau State Internal Revenue Service has recorded over ₦31 billion as internally generated revenue in 2024 and is targeting ₦52 billion in 2025.

The Chairman Plateau State Internal Revenue Service, Dr. Jim Pam Wayas disclosed this to news men on Friday during a press briefing at the Revenue House conference hall in Jos.

“When we came in 2023, the previous year 2022 there was a total revenue generation of ₦15.8 billion. But at the close of business in 2023 we were able to jack the revenue to ₦25.8 billion. As at the close of business last year the revenue closed at ₦31.14 billion. That was what we closed the year with.” Dr. Wayas said.

According to him this is the first time Plateau State is hitting the benchmark of above ₦30 billion revenue generation. And he attributed the improvement in revenue generation to expansion of the tax net and the cooperation of the citizens who responded to the increase awareness on payment of tax embarked upon by the service.

He added that the State Governor has given them the target of ₦52 billion revenue generation for 2025 and that they started the year on a front footing having realised ₦3.3 billion revenue in January this year which is far more than the ₦1.6 billion that was recorded in January last year.

Speaking on what the state gets from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, the Chairman said there is a decline in what comes to the State as a result of debts that the state collected in previous years most of which are foreign debts that were collected when the exchange rate was at most ₦440 but today the exchange rate sometimes hits about ₦2000 to a dollar and they have to pay in the local currency.

Dr. Wayas said the state has no option than to look inward to internally generated revenue and that is why the revenue service is going through a transformation where there were taxes that were idle and were not collected before but have to be captured into the tax net now.

On the suspension of mining activities in the state he said part of the reason is insecurity and the government has not been generating revenue from the mining sector in the past but is now looking in that direction. According to him the financial inflow into the state from the mining sector every month is between 5 to 16 million dollars and that the sector will form a good revenue source for the government.

He described unwilling tax payers as one of their major challenges in revenue generation. And called on the citizens to pay their tax promptly as there are lots of benefits that they stand to gain.

While warning against paying tax into individual accounts, he said the payment system is now electronic and people can pay into the revenue service account from the comfort of their homes.