Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State on Tuesday gave directors of finance and revenue officers in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the state government six months ultimatum to block all leakages and double the state’s internally-generated revenue.
He also warned that any government official involved in fraudulent acts would be dealt with.
Fayose gave the charge in Ado-Ekiti during an interactive session he held with the officials at the Governor’s Office.
A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, quoted him as saying that a new tax order was in the offing and warned tax and levy assessors against undermining government’s revenue drive.
He said: “A new tax order in Ekiti State is in the offing. This job is about you and I and we have no other place to call our own. We depend on taxes to survive and we depend on you. Let people go and pay to the bank and any indicted state worker will be appropriately sanctioned.
“I will give the political will and I expect you to give the professional will for us to succeed. We hope to double our IGR in six months. We must devise strategy on revenue generation and do it with sense. The state will employ spread cost strategy so that the impact of any levy will not be hard on the payer and the public at large”.
Gov. Fayose said a task force would be set up on revenue generation and that it would have some civil servants as members for them to be able to make their contributions.
He also read the riot act to private school owners and business operators in the state who are in the habit of cheating the government by refusing to pay their dues and levies, warning that such acts would no longer be tolerated as any erring business premises would be shut down.
