REVENUE COLLECTION: AIRS EMBARKS ON ZERO CASH PAYMENTS

By Daniel Obagha :

The Anambra State Internal Revenue Service (AIRS), has embarked on zero cash payments in revenue collections across the state.

In a press conference at the Board room of AIRS, the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Service, Dr Greg Ezeilo, frowned at the none state actors who divert government money into their private pockets.

‘’No revenue agents or officers , whether recognized or not recognised, is allowed to collect cash in form of revenue payments, otherwise they will be arrested and prosecuted.

‘’Every revenue payment in the state will be made using technology. Transpay Technology has proven that we can do it and we are doing it’’, he said.

The chairman described how Transpay Technology is being used to collect revenue in transport sector.

‘‘It is pay as you work. Once a transport operator gets on board with the Transpay Technology, it avails them with a seamless process for revenue payment, billing them according to how they work. About 60,000 transport operators have successfully been on boarded in the state Transpay Technology. And we are going to implement it in every other informal sector’’, Ezeilo explained.

The chief tax collector described an innovative way of reaching tax payers in various markets across the state. He called it ‘smart market hubs’.

‘‘We have distributed smart market hubs to the various markets across the state, each of these hubs has been equipped with wi-fi, smart computers and every other valuable equipment needed for revenue collection. They will be manned by professional tax officers to educate market taxpayers on how to make their consolidated revenue payments based on presumptive tax laws’’, the chairman narrated.

Ezeilo further said that AIRS will be setting up a tax education centre to help the market taxpayers on how to design their business processes that should be able to capture their business data and teach them things like inventory, bookkeeping, financial advisory and stock accounting.

The chairman also said that the AIRS will be setting up shuttle busses that will intentionally operate across the the state with inscription, ‘AIRS Business on the Streets’.

‘‘Their job is to capture all businesses on the streets, enumerate taxpayers, and by that draw them into the state’s data net.”

He mentioned that in collaboration with all the local government chairmen in the state, AIRS is introducing E-ticketing for collection of revenues in local governments in line with the Anambra State Revenue Consolidation and Harmonisation Law.

*Daniel is of the Ministry of Information, Anambra State