Kaduna State realised more than N50 billion as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in 2020 in spite of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Zaid Abubakar, the Executive Chairman, Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KADIRS), disclosed this on Thursday in Kaduna at the opening of the 147 meeting of the Joint Tax Board (JTB).

Abubakar said that the state revenue collection had grown from N12 billion in 2015 to N44.9 billion in 2019, and to more than N50bn in 2020.

This feat, according to him, places Kaduna state as the 6th state with the highest IGR among the sub-nationals in the country.

According to Abubakar, this is in spite of disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and tax palliative granted by the state to soften the burden of the nationwide lockdown.

“This year (2021), we have an ambitious target of collecting about N60 billion.

“We intend to achieve this target through careful planning, leveraging technology, tax-payer engagement, inter-ministries, department and agencies collaboration and pragmatic implementation of our medium-term revenue collection strategy,” he said.

The executive chairman explained that the JTB was a statutory body of tax administrators established by the Personal Income Tax Act 2011 as amended.

He said that the goal was to promote uniformity in the application of the Personal Income Tax Act, and the incidences of tax on individuals across the federation.

Abubakar said the theme of the meeting, “Strategic Initiative for Sustainable Revenue Generation: Prospect, Challenges and Next Steps” was carefully choosen to sustain revenue generation at the national and sub-national levels.

He said that the key areas for discussion at the meeting include the development of roadmap for seamless implementation of revenue generation plans among states and an action plan for automation and collaboration among various stakeholders.

“This includes developing strategies to combat illicit financial flows, strategies and action plans for Revenue-based Digital Service Taxes (DTSS) and provision of assistance for capacity building and tax-payers education,” he said.