The Abia government has advised residents of the state to be wary of unauthorised revenue collectors, who parade themselves with fake identities in Aba and Umuahia. ?
Prof. Mkpa Agu Mkpa, the Secretary to the Abia State Government, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Umuahia.
“It is only the accredited consultant of the state government that is allowed to collect all revenues and anybody found to be violating the regulation of government is in for a very serious problem. The state governor has repeatedly stressed this point.
“He has held several meetings with stakeholders, with commissioners, and permanent secretaries, and with local government finance officers to make this point. I will be surprised to hear that there is a violation.??????
“Any ministry, department or agency will be joking with fire if they failed to comply strictly with government directives.
?“And we call on all well-meaning Abians that if such people come, please report to the nearest police or report to the governor’s office or to the Office of the Secretary to the State Government or the chief of staff and such individuals must be arrested because they do not have the authority to do what they are doing,’’
Mkpa said government was surprised to hear that some fake revenue agents were still moving about harassing residents of Umuahia and Aba to pay cash as revenue in spite of the recent government’s directive banning such activity.
NAN recalls that Gov. Theodore Orji of Abia last week demobilised all revenue agents engaged by the state’s ministries, departments and agencies and directed that all revenues accruable to the state be paid into one bank account.
Investigation by NAN, however, revealed that some revenue agents still went round threatening unsuspecting residents of Umuahia and Aba to pay levies in cash for environmental and physical infrastructure or be dragged to court.
Mkpa said: “Revenues are no longer collected in cash in Abia; if anybody says pay cash, it means such a person is a fake.’’
He added that government decided to re-structure its revenue collection system because the monthly internally generated revenue of the state had continued to decline in spite of the presence of a significant number of companies and other businesses in the state.
“Some states generate N1 billion to N2 billion monthly as internally generated revenue. When Gov. Orji came on board in 2007, the state was generating between N200 million and N250 million monthly.
“We have the Ariaria, Ekeoha, and Ahia Ohuru markets as well as the industries in Aba and the markets in Umuahia and yet we cannot collect a billion naira as revenue.
“That is why we felt there is something fundamentally wrong with the procedure and approach for revenue collection.’’
On the collection of N200 daily from commercial tricycle operators, Mkpa said the government conducted a research recently on the average income of a commercial tricycle operator in Aba and Umuahia, before fixing the rate, saying the fee was right. (NAN)