Mr Mark Okoye, who is Special Adviser to Gov. Willie Obiano of Anambra, says the state plans to increase its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from the current N16.8 billion to N26.4 billion in 2016.
Okoye told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja that the projected amount would increase by 82 per cent when achieved.
He said the state currently generated about N1.4 billion monthly as IGR.
“We intend to hit N2.2 billion monthly by the end of the year; when annualised, it becomes 26.4 billion for the year.
“ This figure will enhance social-economic development of the state,” he said.
Okoye, who is the Special Adviser to the Governor on Economic Planning and Budget, said the administration would not increase taxes this year.
He said: “We believe N2.2 billion is paid monthly by people and businesses in Anambra.
“We are investing in automation to close these leakages, to ensure that this N2.2 billion which we believe is paid in taxes monthly, returns to the state without leakages.’’
According to him, the dwindling oil revenue calls for creativity and resolve by every state to increase its IGR.
He said the state IGR was about N350 million in March 2014 and that it had grown by 350 per cent now at N1.3 billion.
“We have about 450 IGR heads; from those 450, only 10 accounts for our IGR and we are giving those 10 extra focus to sustain the progress.’’
Okoye, however, said the state allocation from the Federal Government had decreased, calling on the state governments to be creative to source revenue to support the government.
The adviser said that the governor had levered on his experience from private sector by reducing the cost of governance in the state.
“We applied what is called the `marching principle’ in which revenue has to march with the expenditure so that ministries will be prudent in spending.
“You see in the past, a ministry could take 70 per cent of its budget ahead in the first quarter of the year; we are saying `No’ to that.
“ We have to march our revenue with our expenditure so that ministries can only take 25 per cent of the budget for each quarter,’’ he said.
In addition, he said that the state government had formulated policies that would attract private investors.
“We have opened our economy for private sector involvement; we have currently attracted over 3.4 billion dollars of investment in the state.
“We have also created enabling environment for the Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to thrive because they employ about 80 to 90 per cent of the state’s work force ,’’Okoye said.
(NAN)
