FCT to fund budget with IGR

The Acting Executive Chairman of the Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS), Mr Haruna Y. Abdullahi, has said funding the FCT Budget 100 per cent from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is possible with collaboration and synergy with other revenue-generating agencies in the territory.

The Acting Chairman of the Service stated this when he received the delegation from the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DRTS) led by its Director, Alhaji Wadata Aliyu Bodinga, at the Services headquarters in Abuja.

He noted that the Service has been championing the cause of harmonizing revenue from all revenue-generating agencies in the FCT with a view to blocking leakages, addressing multiple taxations and growing the revenue base in the FCT.

“The effort will make the Federal Capital Territory have the capacity to fund its budget solely through the IGR.

“We hope to see that FCTA will fund its budget 100 per cent from the IGR so that whatever comes from the Federal Government as allocation will be a surplus for them.

“From the management to the board and all other stakeholders, this is what we want and will be excited about this development, talking and finding solutions.

“We are passionate about harmonization, I mean to harmonize the whole collection process” he explained.

Abdullahi reassured the team of the Service’s continued support, stating that the FCT-IRS has been working tirelessly to raise and enhance the revenue base in the FCT.

He said, in view of this, he would continue to extend a hand of friendship across all revenue-generating agencies in the territory.

The Chairman also said that the Service would review the priorities of the Department of Road Transport Services (DRTS) in order to identify more areas for sustainable collaboration in order to enhance revenue generation.

In his remarks, the DRTS’ Director, Alhaji Wadata Aliyu Bodinga, said the visit was targeted at three major areas: collaboration, support and training.

He stated that the DRTS, under his leadership, was committed to ensuring safety and orderliness in the FCT as well as to strengthening the existing collaboration between DRTS and FCT-IRS to boost revenue generation.

Highlighting the benefits of the collaboration between DRTS and the Service, the FCT-IRS Director in charge of ICT, Oduba Oduba, stated that the collaboration would help in facilitating the exchange of data between revenue generating agencies as well as to improve road infrastructure through the revenue generated.

The Head of Planning, Research and Statistics, DRTS, Mr Wale Durojaye, expressed the readiness of DRTS to provide data, reports and projections needed to facilitate FCT-IRS collection.

Meanwhile, a committee had been constituted to articulate and harmonise areas of possible collaboration between the two organizations with a view to boosting revenue collection.

The members are Mr Malik Tukur, FCT-IRS Director Taxes, Oduba Oduba, Director in charge of ICT, FCT-IRS while Head of Planning, Research and Statistics, DRTS, Mr Wale Durojaye and the DRTS’ head of ICT, Mr Auwal Mohammed are also part of the committee.