The acting chairman Benue State Internal Revenue Service (BIRS), Emmanuel Agema, has decried the activities of illegal tax collectors in the state, even as he lamented that most of these criminals are backed by very prominent individuals, saying “under my watch, the era of using the board to patronise politicians is over.”
This is even as Agena informed that three suspected criminals in Aliade, Gwer-East local government area of the state have also been arrested for intercepting a truck loaded with palliatives from Adamawa to deliver in Anambra State.
The acting BIRS chairman who disclosed this during an interface with journalists in Makurdi also said, 35 persons who have engaged in illegal tax collection across the state have been arrested and arraigned before the court of competent jurisdiction since assumption of office.
According to him, the three criminals who mounted an illegal roadblock in the name of BIRS to extort money from unsuspecting members of the public intercepted a truck loaded with palliatives and forcefully collected N200,000 from the driver and also beat him and his conductor to stupor.
He said the era of using the board for political compensation is over because since his assumption of office he has organised training and retraining of staff to enable them acquire professional skills. “So gone are the days where the past leaders used the board as a political hub, so what I am doing here is a deliberate attempt of moving from the past ideas of our past leaders to enable us achieve our target of 16 billion,” he said.
He also informed that the board is now operating on an automated system which has enabled them to block 85 per cent of the leakages, which has built more confidence in the minds of the people and associations who are coming out willingly to pay their tax unlike before.
He maintained that the board has also configured over 200 Point of Sales (POS) machines, to help in the collection of tax from market women and artisans among others to boost revenue generation in the state, adding that the machines will soon be launched for onward operation.
“Our aim is to reduce illegal tax collectors to the barest minimum. This has been a big challenge the board is facing, but we have constituted a team to flush out these criminals but as I tell you some prominent people in the state are involved in encouraging these boys,” he added.
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