The Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has disclosed that the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, of the state now hovers between N1 billion to N1.263 billion monthly.
According to the Governor, who spoke at the floor of the state house of assembly, the nine figure generated was against the sum of N905 million that was being generated before he took over as governor.
He emphasized that the low revenue before his emergence should be attributed to financial racketeerings, which he said has been curbed with the aid of financial consultants who were contracted by his government.
“When we came in, we put our revenue base on an average rate of 700 million naira per month but at averagly now, we are generating N1.263 billion per month,” he said.
He explained that the state governments had made frantic efforts to block all the “loopholes” where unscrouplous revenue collectors in the workforce of the state’s financial departments milk what ought to go into the treasury.
“Mr. Speaker, you will recall I informed this honourable House here last year that we had engaged some revenue consultants to complement the existing efforts in revenue generation and to overcome the challenges posed by inadequate revenue.
“I am happy to inform you that the effort has been yielding a positive result ranging from appreciable blockade of some revenue leakages to increase our revenue base, a situation which has led to the State generating an average monthly IR of N1.263 billion as against N905 million monthly average recorded in 2017.
“Yes, we are not there yet, but with the combined efforts of the consultants and the vibrant autonomous Board of Internal Revenue, as well as the various financial reforms being carried out by this Administration, we shall achieve the desired result in no distant time.
“Despite the improvement recorded in IR, revenue from Federation Account still contributes to the larger part of total revenue accruing to the State.
“The same scenario will still play out in 2019 fiscal year. In the light of this, our revenue projections are based on some macro-economic assumptions as contained in the 2019-2021 MTEF of both Ondo State and Federal Government.”
Last year December, the Chairman of the Ondo State Board of Internal Revenue, Tolu Adegbie had revealed that the state government through the board generated the sum of N18 billion between January and November 2017.
Mr. Adegbie specifically pointed out that the amount was an improvement on the N10.9 billion generated in 2017.
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