The Plateau Inland Revenue Service (PSIRS) has introduced an intelligent revenue billing system (PIRBS) for ease of taxation.
The billing system, known as Plateau Intelligent Revenue Billing System, was unveiled on Thursday in Jos.
The Executive Chairman of PSIRS, Mr Jim Wayas, said at the launch that the system would be driven by data.
He said that PSIRS would collaborate with the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and use the National Identity Number (NIN), Bank Verification Number (BVN), and other relevant details to achieve the goal.
“Without revenue, government cannot do anything, just like without blood nothing can function in a human being.
“As a people, we are trying to put ourselves together to support the government in terms of revenue generation, not only through taxes but through all forms of revenue.
“We have created a platform whereby if you interrogate all the revenue sources—taxes, fines, levies, school fees, and whatever revenue the government generates—they go into a single billing system.
“The billing system helps us to gather data and help us match data with NIN, BVN, where a person comes from, phone number, and other relevant details.
“When we came here, we discovered that we were doing taxes the normal way, and I told them that taxes can no longer be driven by paper.
“Tax is driven by data because data is the new oil for Nigeria. We are going to drive this process by data,” he said.
He said that until data of every person in the state would be gathered, taxation would not be adequately achieved.
In his remarks, Gov. Caleb Mutfwang commended the initiative.
“Like it has been said, revenue is the lifeblood of government.
“One thing we cannot debate is the fact that we have not been collecting the kind of revenue that we are supposed to collect.
“This is the truth; therefore, we need to step up our game,” he said.
The governor noted that Nigeria was facing inflation.
“Even staff of the board of internal revenue want better pay. Unfortunately, we cannot give you what we don’t have.
“If we want improvement in salaries and emoluments, we must bake the cake together, and the only way we can do it is when we improve our capacity and efficiency in revenue collection.
“Let us block the loopholes and expand the tax net within the limits allowed by law,” the governor said.
