A coalition of States Internally Generated Revenue Services across the 36 states of the Federation has launched a fresh investigation into how the Federal Government is remitting the Pay As You Earn fund into their individual state coffers.
The Executive Chairman of the Plateau State Internal Revenue Service, Dashe Arlat Dasogot, disclosed this in an interview with The PUNCH in Jos on Wednesday
Dasogot said that the probe followed revelations by states about how they had been experiencing shortfall from their own share of the PAYE remittances from the Federal Government in the past months
The chairman said, “We held a meeting and the concern of all states generally bothers on the continuous shortfall of their PAYE remittances from the Federal Government. Like in the case of Plateau, we used to share about N300 million PAYE remittance to the state every month but what we have been getting in the past months, especially this year, has been hovering between 180 million and N220 million.
“Other states also complained about the same thing. And the explanation we got during our last Joint Tax Board meeting was that not all the ministry workers are paid. So, we have decided to investigate the matter further to enable us address the problem. We will get the payroll of every federal establishment in the states and compare them with what we have been given.”
The Chairman faulted the Finance Act of 2021, describing it as unfavourable to the states in terms of tax payment
He noted that those earning N30,000 or less as monthly income were exempted from tax payment under the Act but were rather captured under direct assessment, which was more difficult to handle because of lack of data.
The chairman also lamented the drop in oil prices that had resulted in reduction in statutory revenue allocation to the states, saying that the Plateau State Internal Revenue Service, under his leadership, was working hard to ensure that the service met its monthly target of N5 billion.
“There is an urgent need for government and citizens to brace up and confront the present realities of harsh economic climate that will enable them to look inwards and take advantage of any activity that is income-yielding to ensure that revenues are enhanced and collected to keep the wheels of government turning in order to meet the needs of the people.”
He urged the people to cooperate with the agency to enable it to meet its obligations while assuring them that a post-pandemic strategy had been developed and deployed to ensure that business activities resumed seamlessly in the state after the pandemic had abated.
