A call has gone to stakeholders saddled with the responsibility of revenue generation across Local Government Areas in Kwara State to justify the confidence reposed in them by improving the revenue generation base of the councils.
This call was made by the Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs, and Community Development, Hon. Abubakar Abdullahi Bata during an interactive session with the Executive Chairman of the State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS), Mrs. Folashade Omoniyi and her management team in his office.
The Commissioner thanked the revenue boss for deeming it fit to identify with the Ministry and further strengthened the harmonious relationship, which had existed between the Ministry and her agency.
Hon. Bata disclosed that as the Ministry saddled with monitoring of the activities of Local Government Councils, he would be more interested in technology driven form of revenue collection in place of manual collection, in order to ensure transparency and most importantly to avert any occurrence of double taxation across the councils.
He disclosed further that the Ministry would organize inter-ministerial meetings that would involve KWIRS and all the Council Areas, in form of a round table meeting to exchange ideas and put an end to the reoccurrence of conflicts in the course of revenue generation.
In her welcome remarks, the KWIRS Chairman, Mrs. Folashade Omoniyi disclosed that her visit was to congratulate the Commissioner on his appointment and most importantly, engaged him on how to further strengthen the relationship that had existed between her Agency and the Local Government Councils through his Ministry.
Mrs. Omoniyi disclosed that among her engagements with the Commissioner, was to discuss the friction existing between KWIRS officials and the Councils officials in revenue generation.
The Chairman, who described Bata’s appointment as a good one being a former Chairman of Kaiama Local Government, and a former Secretary to the same Council, expressed optimism that he would bring his wealth of experience to bear in creating a seamless synergy between the Ministry and KWIRS.
The Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Iyabo Modupe Adekeye, while welcoming the visiting team to the Ministry, expressed the Ministry’s readiness to work closely with the Revenue Agency in ensuring total blockage of all leakages in revenue generation.
Mrs. Adekeye, who pledged the Ministry’s unalloyed commitment, appreciated the team for deeming it fit to come around to seek the Ministry’s support.
