The United States Agency for International Development, State Accountability, Transparency, and Effectiveness, State2State Activity, has organised a three-day training on tax audit and investigation in Gombe State.
PERISCOPE NIGERIA reports that the training had as participants Chairman of Gombe Internal Revenue Service, officials from various departments as well as Chairman tax tribunal and members in attendance.
Recall that S2S supports states to plan and budget, raise revenues, increase civil society participation, and oversee service delivery in Health, Education, and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene sectors by building relevant capacities.
It’s implemented by Development Alternatives Incorporated.
Addressing participants at the Custodian Hotel, venue of the training, Public Financial Management Specialist, Oluwatosin Oke, told participants that the training was motivated by a five-year Internal Generated Revenue Expansion Strategy that State2State supported the Service to develop in 2023.
According to him, the training was geared towards building the capacity of tax officers to conduct proper audits and investigations, stressing that the state would in the long run generate funds to tackle priority areas.
“One of the actions in the IGR Expansion Strategy is for the state to develop and implement an audit programme to increase revenue mobilisation. The primary essence is to increase IGR in the state, and one of the ways to get tax evaders or tax defaulters to pay what they need to pay is through tax audit and investigation. So, S2S supported the state to develop a tax audit and investigation manual. This training is to put the staff through the principles and processes of tax audit, and build the capacity of tax officers to conduct proper tax audit and investigation,” Oke noted.
On his part, a Public Financial Management Consultant, Dr Ayuba Onifade, in his presentation, charged participants to drive the revenue in Gombe State.
He said, “We hope this manual will help staff in increasing revenue massively to be of benefit. It’s important for the manual to be a working document to a working tool. We believe Gombe will notice the difference because there are so many areas that lack focus that the service can explore to boost the tax of the state without mounting pressure on the citizens.
“People need to be educated as regards taxation. Otherwise, there will be conflict, and any conflict will reduce tax payment. A kind of forecast by percentage, whatever they have been generating before now with this intervention, I think the state will be able to increase revenue based by more than 50 per cent by deploying strategies.”
The recently appointed Executive Chairman of the Gombe Internal Revenue Service, Aisha Adamu-Mohammed, told PERISCOPE NIGERIA that the target of her board is to generate no less than N22 billion in 2024.
Adamu-Mohammed explained to our correspondent that the target aims to beat the N13 billion generated in 2022 and the N15 billion also generated in 2023.
Opening up on the strategies she plans to deploy to achieve her target, she noted that the board only needs to brace up for reforms, simplify tax procedures to taxpayers, and remain accountable to achieve the feat.
The Executive Chairman further told PERISCOPE NIGERIA that her expectations from the training were for her staff to be empowered with the requisite skills, “to further enhance the capacity of our staff, auditors and to impact on our bottom line by improving our IGR in the state.”
She added, “We all must understand that paying tax is the responsibility of all individuals in the state, and they are used to providing essential services. We need to be responsible for paying our dues so that we can all enjoy the facilities and safety in the state.
“We have a lot of reforms we are bringing on. We will simplify the tax process for our residents and be accountable to them so that compliance will drive the process.”
However, she lamented the state’s current ranking on the IGR table, saying, “Our budget this year is N22 billion and personally, I intend to move our position from the 31 on the IGR table to at least five point above.”
Also speaking on what Gombe can generate Adamu-Mohammed maintained, “I believe we can do much better than what we are doing now when you take away some states that are our peers, the relative security we enjoy in the state and the level of commercial activities and the population we have we should be doing better than our peers our there.
“We should be able to double what we are currently generating if we block leakages leverage and embrace technology, and also encourage professionalism into the Service.”
Continuing, she stressed, “In 2022, we did N13b, 2023 we did N15b, and this year, we have a budget of N22b, and we are going to surpass it inshallah, God willing.”
While urging participants to embrace positive reforms, she added, “They should have an open mindset. They should be ready to carry whatever they learn here to the Service.”
Also speaking with PERISCOPE NIGERIA a staff with the Gombe Revenue Service, Nadiye Garba, observed that the training has increased his knowledge, stressing that he has become empowered to deliver.
“Initially, I was battling with the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion, but this training has made me know the difference between avoiding tax and evasion. As well as the difference between tax auditing and investigation, which I will add to knowledge.
“I equally learnt more of the legal framework governing the state generally, before now we relied on the Gombe codification and consolidation law but we now know more of national laws that regulate taxes and it has added to our knowledge,” he added.
Similarly, Deborah Sabo-Buba, Assistant Head of PAYE Department, described the impact of the training as huge.
She added, “This process of auditing payee needs it because officers need to know how to handle customers, the way they relate with them will tell whether they will bring more money to the Gombe Internal Revenue Service.
“We have been given steps on how to approach customers, audit, and keep relevant admissible documents are areas we are lacking. We will bring those not in the net into the tax net,” she assured.
