BENIN CITY – With the new administration in place, Edo state is poised to generate revenue that will meet the yearnings and aspirations of her people, Edo State Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Executive Chairman Chief Oseni Elamah has said during a courtesy visit paid to him by development partners of the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ.
The courtesy visit was part of the schedule of programmes between ANEEJ and Bread for the World, a development organisation based in Berlin to ANEEJ headquarters in Benin City Edo State.Part of the delegation from Bread for the World included Mr. Rainer Lang, Public Relations Officer of Bread of the World and Mr. Reinhard Palm head of Africa desk.
Chief Elama told his visitors that because the Edo state government is desirous of deepening its drive for inclusiveness in governance, it decided to scrap the uncoordinated tax system in Edo state, grant a general tax amnesty aimed at giving tax drive a human face. re-organizing the tax regime in Edo State.
‘The Edo State government knows human factors play a big role in the formulation of our policies. And since the soul of governance is the ability of government to generate the resources that meet the demands and yearnings of our people, we decided to reorganize the tax system and be at par with the changes taking place all over the world’, he said.
Earlier in a statement, ANEEJ Executive Director, the Rev. David Ugolor told Chief Elamah that the visit of ANEEJ and her development partners to the IRS is a product of already existing governance cooperation with the Edo State government. ‘Our visit today is to firm up that relationship which began when Edo State government began to be open and transparent with its budgeting systems’, the Rev Ugolor said.
Head of the Bread for the World delegation, Mr. Reinhard Palm on his part, thanked the chairman for opening up issues of governance to the scrutiny of her people. He said that since development partners believe that finance for development has to come from the inside of governments, issues of taxation and how the government intends to spend these monies remain critical issues. ‘ANEEJ and Edo IRS collaboration is unique and must be commended because international analysis of Nigeria’s revenue collection is often negative in the light of dwindling oil finances’, Mr. Palm said.
After a review of ANEEJ Resource Governance in the Niger Delta (REGOND) Project, and discuss other new projects to be embarked upon by ANEEJ, the delegation will meet with the Ovie of Oghara and key Edo State government functionaries before returning to Berlin Germany.
