Governor Nwifuru | File Image
Leave poor village people alone, Nwifuru tells revenue drivers
By Felix Uka,
Abakaliki
Ebonyi State Governor Francis Nwifuru has ordered revenue agents and commissions not to canvas for taxes, revenue in the very rural communities but focus on the rich investors in the urban areas.
The governor’s advice came even when the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) remained unprogressive.
Governor Nwifuru said that the sad situation was that most of those who through government acquired wealth, established high profiting investments, profitable estate ventures do not pay the due taxes, tenements as they are excused by inducement, or “phone calls”.
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Nwifuru noted of seven instances where his mother called his attention to undue taxe drives in far-to- reach villages, a case in point where a woman with vegetables worth N1,500 was asked to pay N500 levy.
Piqued by that the governor, who spoke on Friday, explained that even as the administration needed perked up IGR, the drive should be focused on the high income earners.
Nwifuru noted that as one of the authors of the State’s Internally Generated Revenue Appeal Committee, being the Speaker of the State House of Assembly when the bill. was passed into law, he knows that the committee has the provisions, capacity to cause changes in favor of the State, the taxes payers and the various organs of IGR generation in the best interest of all parties.
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