Acting chairman of Cross River State Internal Revenue Service (IRS), John Mpama Odey has committed to eradicating leakages and pilfering of state government’s revenue as well as ensure an increase in the internally generated revenue of the state.
Odey stated this while on a 3-day familiarisation tour to all tax offices across the state.
This, he explained, has become necessary given the state’s dependence on internally generated revenue (IGR) to pay salaries.
The IRS boss admitted that federation allocation to the state has been dwindling especially in the face of heavy deductions of loans taken by past administrations.
Odey, who described the IRS as the major source of Cross River State’s cash inflow, commended the staff for the good job done so far as reflected in Governor Ben Ayade’s ability to pay salaries regularly.
Read Also: When Cross River council bosses rallied for Ayade
He, however, lamented that “many hands are feasting illegally on state’s revenue,” noting that no stone would be left unturned in ‘pruning illegal hands collecting revenue and depriving the state of its income’.
In separate remarks, some revenue officers disclosed that the state governor’s exemption of low-income earners from paying taxes has negatively affected revenue flow as most eligible taxpayers now evade payment with everyone claiming to be a low-income earner.
They appealed to the governor to explicitly state the categories exempted from paying taxes as this would go a long way to ease their task.
