The Executive Chairman Kwara State Internal Revenue Service. (KWIRS),Dr. Muritala Awodun, on Tuesday stressed on the importance of voluntary payment of taxes from tax payers in the state in the year 2017.
He added that the agency had commenced the distribution of bills to those who were expected to pay their taxes based on information already collected from them .
Awodun stated this while addressing journalists at a forum organised by the service in collaboration with the state’s Ministry of Information and Communications.
He said the agency recognises the effects of economic recession on Nigerians and would therefore want to tread softly on them saying enforcement with a human face would come only when people fail to comply.
“In as much as we want to collect tax for the government,we had to tread softly and we will continue to tread softly because the economy is not as friendly as we expected “,he said.
Awodun urges tax payers to make themselves available for audit to avoid a situation where agents would resort to what he described as “use of best judgement”, to determine what they would have to pay.
He said some states including Kogi, Bauchi, Lagos and Zamfara states have visited the state to study its revenue collection models.
The revenue boss said the agency had increased the revenue profile of the state from N7.2billion generated in 2015 when the service was created to N17.4 billion in 2016.
He however said the potentials to collect more this year is high because of the level of awareness and information gathered by the agency.
