By Sarah NEGEDU
The Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, says it is targeting funding its annual budget from internally generated revenue 100 percent.
Acting Executive Chairman of FCT Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS), Mr Haruna Y. Abdullahi, gave the indication weekend, but said to achieve the objective requires collaboration and synergy with other revenue generating agencies in the territory.
Speaking when he received a delegation from the Directorate of Road Traffic Services, DRTS, led by its director, Alhaji Wadata Aliyu Bodinga, at the Service headquarters in Abuja, the FCT-IRS chairman explained that the Service has been championing the harmonising of revenue from all generating agencies in the FCT with a view to block leakages, address multiple taxation and grow the revenue base.
A statement by the Head, Corporate Communications, FCT-IRS, Mustapha Sumaila, said the, “effort will make the Federal Capital Territory to have capacity to fund its budget solely, through the IGR.
“We hope to see that FCTA will fund its budget 100 per cent from the IGR, so that whatever comes from the Federal Government as allocation will be a surplus.
“From the management to the board and all other stakeholders, this is what we want and will be excited about this development, talking and finding solutions.
“We are passionate about harmonisation. I mean to harmonise the whole collection processes.”
Mr. Abdullahi assured the DRTS team of the Service’s continued support, stating that FCT-IRS has been working tirelessly to raise and enhance the revenue base in the FCT, and as such would continue to extend hand of friendship across all revenue generating agencies in the territory.
Abdullahi also said that the Service would review the priorities of DRTS in order to identify more areas for sustainable collaboration in order to enhance revenue generation.
In his remarks, the DRTS’ director, Bodinga said the visit was targeted at three major areas; collaboration, support and training.
He stated that DRTS under his leadership was committed to ensuring safety and orderliness in the FCT as well as to strengthen the existing collaboration between DRTS and FCT-IRS to boost revenue generation.
Highlighting the benefits of the collaboration between DRTS and the Service, the FCT-IRS Director in charge of ICT, Oduba Oduba stated that the collaboration would help in facilitating the exchange of data between revenue generating agencies as well as to improve road infrastructure through the revenue generated.
The Head of Planning, Research and Statistics, DRTS, Mr. Wale Durojaye expressed the readiness of DRTS to provide data, reports and projections needed to facilitate FCT-IRS collection.
Meanwhile, a committee had been constituted to articulate and harmonise areas of possible collaboration between the two organisations with a view to boost revenue collection.
