PLATEAU State Internally Generated Revenue Service (PSIRS), has, through its renewed strategies to meet target for the year, generated over 7 billion Naira (#7,000,000,000) in just three months for the state.
The Executive Chairman of the board, Mr. Arlat Dashe, disclosed this recently at the quarterly press briefing organised by the board at the conference hall of the Revenue House in Jos, the Plateau State capital.
The chairman said there was a shortfall from over twenty-billion-naira (#20 billion) revenue generated in 2021-to-sixteen-billion-naira (#16b) last year due to some challenges beyond their control, forcing the Service to generate this low against the twenty billion Naira (#20b) target for the year 2022.
He said, “the seven billion Naira (#7b) realised from January to March this year was partly as a result of the arrears collected for the month of December 2022 and the renewed strategies by staff of the Service to meet the over twenty-six billion Naira (#26b) target for this year.
“It was for this reason that we have embarked on training and retraining of our staff who are ever ready to learn new tax policies and we are optimistic that we will realize the #26b target of the year with more strategy and awareness to the citizens of the state on the importance of paying tax.
“We are all working toward ensuring that all revenues are collected in the state by deploying new technology with the Plateau Business Unions and other stakeholders to ensure taxpayers pay their tax comfortably through their unions based on their income”, Arlat stated.
The Chairman, however, appealed to the journalists in the state to be critical stakeholders as tax ambassadors in assisting the service in creating awareness among the citizens on the need to pay tax because Plateau State has a lot of potentials that were yet to be harnessed and utilized.
He commended Governor Simon Bako Lalong for the support given to the service even when much was not realised in 2022 due to challenges being faced, but promised to ensure the shortfall would be recovered optimally.
There were questions and answers session and the Chairman responded satisfactorily.
