The State House of Assembly on Tuesday resolved that the Government should implement an online payment system to facilitate direct payment of revenue into the State’s accounts and also establish strict measures against non-compliance.
The Assembly also wants the Government to collaborate with Tax Authorities, Custom’s Department’s and Licensing bodies in it’s efforts towards comprehensive revenue collection.
The House further resolved that;” the State Government should establish a system for regular reporting and transparency in revenue collection and publish periodic reports detailing the revenue collected, source of revenue collection and how the finds are being utilized”.
These resolutions were taken at plenary following the adoption of motion sponsored by the Member representing Ikom 1 State Constituency and Minority Leader of the Assembly, Hon. Samuel Neji Abang.
Abang, while Leading the debate on the motion emphasized that Cross River, with enormous natural resources should not be in lack adding that much of the State’s revenue ends up in private pockets due to the present system of revenue collection.
“The Government needs to reorganize the system such that all revenue will be paid directly into the bank. This will lead to increase in the State’s revenue”.He said.
The Lawmaker also noted that;” The motion is timely because we are trying to push away from Federal allocation and to see how we could increase our internally generated revenue to compete with other States like Lagos in terms of revenue generation”.
He added that;”This is in continuation of a landmark motion presented by the Member representing Boki 1 last week, recently the House has agreed to unban logging and if we unban logging it means all revenue will be coming into the State Account”.
Also speaking, the Member representing Bekwarra State Constituency, Hon. Charles Omang Omang said the essence of seeking the digitalization of the State’s revenue system is to stop leakages, shorten ques at payment points, generate data as well as increase the State’s revenue profile.
A majority of the Lawmakers while supporting the motion noted, amongst other things that, Cross River State is long overdue for a complete overhaul of it’s revenue collection system, that digitalizing the system will greatly enhance proper management of the State’s resources, encourage transparency and discourage pilfering and other fraudulent practices.
The Lawmakers unanimously voted for the motion when the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Elvert Ayambem called for a voice vote. Ayambem subsequently directed the Clerk, Mr. Dominic Akiba to forward clean copies of the motion to the Executive for implementation.