Budget: Anambra Govt Yet to Collect Half of its Tax Potentials – Commissioner

By Praise Chinecherem

Anambra State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Chiamaka Nnake on Tuesday said tax remained one of the major sources of government Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) for budget implementation.

The Commissioner who disclosed this during a post-budget presentation media briefing at her office said government projected N60billion revenue for the year, while that of next year is N72billion.

She however said government had potentials to do more than the estimated IGR, with plans to device more efficient and creative ways of tax collection as well as expansion of tax bracket to ensure everyone was captured.

She said, “One of the major sources of government revenue for budget implementation is tax.

“Anambra hasn’t even scratched its potential in tax collection. We haven’t collected half of what we have potential to collect in the state.

“What we’ll be looking at doing it more efficiently and creatively, using technology to collect taxes, as well as expanding the tax bracket to ensure everyone is captured.

“Don’t forget, it’s not an Anambra thing. It’s an obligation of every Nigerian citizen to pay tax. Yes, culturally, we’re not used to paying tax, but we don’t have option than to pay our taxes as our civic responsibility.

“It’s also the citizens’ way of reciprocating government gesture of providing the necessary infrastructures.

“This year, our IGR estimation is N72bn which is well below especially when compared with Enugu which is doing over N100bn.

“But our budget is conservative and we have the potential to do more than N72bn. Mr Governor also promised of a new system to improve the efficiency of tax collection.

“On budget deficits, we expect external funding to support the budget towards infrastructure. Meanwhile, we won’t borrow for consumption, but rather projects that are commercially viable enough to pay back.

“We’ve had budget deficits in the past, yet we’ve not borrowed. This year won’t be different. We could only borrow based on the implementation we seek.

“If we must borrow, it’s for commercially viable projects and designed for redemption.”

The commissioner further assured increased road construction in the coming months being peak of dry season.

“From November till probably March next year, lots of road construction, asphalting will happen, being peak of dry season. So we’ll expect budget implementation to double,” she added.