Nasarawa Moves to Fix Border Tax Breaches

*Eyes over N1bn IGR

James Emejo in Abuja
The Nasarawa State government has finalised plans to address years of border tax breaches by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in a historic initiative that could significantly boost its monthly revenue from a mere N100 million to over N1billion.

In partnership with FourCore Technology Solutions Limited, a foremost technology and tax audit firm, the state said it hopes to reclaim arrears of taxes paid by border residents within Abuja particularly the Mararraba/Karu axis by putting the residency tax law into effect.

Speaking during the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the state government and the tax consultant in Lafia, the state capital, Nasarawa State Deputy Governor, Mr. Silas Ali Agara described the initiative as “great and historic” for the state.

He said the administration of Governor Tanko Almakura had been resolute and passionate about seeking alternative sources of funding for the state whereby its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) could sustain it for up to four months without resource to the Federation Account.
He decried a situation whereby the state, which shares the largest corridor with the FCT has 50 percent of the people who work in Abuja residing in the state and yet pay taxes to the former.

He said the partnership with FourCore Technology will help address decades of breach of the residency law by the FCT and provide enormous resources for the state to meet its developmental obligations.
He said: “We are all conversant with the residency law, which stipulates that all workers are supposed to be remitting their tax to their state of residence.

“We should benefit from the tax and other related financial matters to Nasarawa State because we provide virtually all the infrastructural and other related services that add value to their lives.
“And as such, it’s our expectation that you (FourCore) will be able to track their activities including those doing business within Karu and other major towns in Nasarawa state and remit same to the coffers of the state.”
He said the state government will provide all necessary support and cooperation to the consultant to be able to turn the financial fortunes of the state on a positive direction.

Agara said: “In our quest to turn around the fortunes of Nasarawa state, His Excellency, the governor of Nasarawa State, Tanko Almakura had been looking round and from your submissions, it shows that we are in the right place.
“They’ve given us a lot of hopes and solution that would turn around the fortunes of this state positively. His excellency has always said we are resolute and passionate about what is happening and we are quite sure that if properly harnessed, our IGR can sustain Nasarawa state for three, four months without recourse to the federation account allocations.”
Managing Director/Chief Executive, FourCore Technology Solutions Limited, Mr. Mohammed Ciroma said the MoU with the state will impact positively on its IGR.

He lamented that the residency law had actively been breached by the FCT to the detriment of the state for many years but gave assurance that the anomaly will soon be addressed in favour of Nasarawa.
He said: “You’ll be surprised that the bulk of people who actually work in Abuja live in Nasarawa State, including Karu, Mararaba, Keffi amongst others.
“The fact that people work and live in one state or the other doesn’t mean that border tax rule should be breached. But that has been actively breached for many years.”