The Cross River State House of Assembly will continue to collaborate with the State Internal Revenue Service IRS to improve the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the State in order to enable Government meet the needs of the citizens.
The Speaker of the 10th Assembly Rt. Hon. Elvert Ayambem gave the promise when the Acting Chairman of the IRS, Mr Edwin Okon led other Management Staff on a courtesy visit to the Assembly.
The Speaker expressed displeasure at the State’s loss of revenue through leakages in the system and promised that the Assembly will continue to legislate on ways to improve the revenue base of the State.
“the 10th Assembly will legislate strongly on ways to increase IGR. We have lost so much revenue through the loss of Bakassi and the 76 oil wells and we are almost the least in federal allocation, so we need to tighten all revenue-generating points.” He stated.
Ayambem who frowned at the situation where different Ministries Departments and Agency (MDA’s) are collecting revenue, stressed that all MDA’s holding revenue should chanel such revenue through the IRS for accountability. He also stressed the need for all revenue leakages to be blocked adding that revenue consultants who are not meeting their targets should be removed no matter how highly placed they may be.
Earlier the Acting Chairman of IRS, Mr. Prince Edwin Okon had emphasised the need for all stakeholders to collaborate towards improving the State’s IGR. He lamented that there were many illegal revenue checkpoints across the State adding that the IRS is working on partnering with the Assembly, Police and other stakeholders to dismantle such illegal revenue points and improve revenue generation across the State.
He thanked the Speaker for his warm reception and congratulated him on his victory at the election and his subsequent emergence as Speaker.
The Chairman further appealed that the Assembly should amend some bills including, bills on Land Use Charges, Tourism Development etc in line with the current realities. He further informed that already, Consultants with heavy charges have been removed adding that this has significantly improved the State’s revenue.