By Nahum Sule, Jalingo
The Taraba state board of internal revenue have made plans to digitalize revenue collection to avoid leakages from economic saboteurs who mount checkpoints, print government revenue receipts for personal gains.
During a courtesy visit by the newly elected exco of the Taraba state correspondent chapel, The chairman of the board, Brig. Gen aJeremiahh Faransa Aliyu said, if revenue collection in Taraba by individuals and organizations are not curtail, Taraba is on a precipice of economic collapse.
In his words he asserts that “The receipt of the state revenue is on multiple individual and organizations who are collecting revenue in the name of Taraba.
“I came about a devastating thing in Taraba, the proliferation of checkpoints in Taraba is way too much. From Jalingo to wukari there are more than 50 checkpoints which makes so many trucks to divert their movements from Taraba”.
“When I was appointed, I noticed our system is rotten, there’s no legality on revenue collections. There’s a CBN guideline on revenue collection which has not been observed in Taraba until I came. I implemented single treasury account. We raise the revenue to N1.1b by June, till it grows to N1.6b by October. As of now we have raise N11.b in 2024 which we have never raise in Taraba”.
“By Q1 of next year, we plan that all revenue collection should be automated. We’ve sent about 65 persons on training on basic experience on revenue collection and how to block leakage. To my my greatest surprise when I came on board, People are still using manuscripts to write memo. Taraba have the capability to be dependent if we manage the revenue collection properly” he said.
He further highlights that deforestation is on the rise in Taraba, as people from other state troop into Taraba to cut down trees for charcoal. He stated that if such actions are not curtail, Taraba state will be worst than Borno on deforestation.