A’Ibom govt to digitalise tax collection in 2025

Ini Billie, Uyo

The Akwa Ibom State Government has said it would begin the full digitalisation of all tax collection processes in the state from the 2025 fiscal year.

The Executive Chairman, Akwa Ibom State Revenue Board, Mr Okon Okon stated this on Sunday in Uyo during a media briefing after a two-day strategic session for the 2025 fiscal year.

Okon said the commencement of the electronic assessment, e-tax clearance process, e-filing of tax returns, automation of registration and reporting processes would help boost revenue generation in the state when the digitalisation plans are rolled out.

He explained that the process would block leakages and improve the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) without necessarily increasing the tax paid by the people.

“We are pleased to inform our public that we will be speeding up on our digitalisation programme next year by further expanding the automation of our processes and deepening our data-driven initiatives.

“This is to significantly improve our operational efficiency and increase the state’s IGR without increasing any tax rate.

“We are confident that without increasing any tax rate, the IGR of our state would be improved via the application of technology, increased tax awareness campaign, and the expansion of the tax net to capture tax evaders.

“Therefore, our focus for the next fiscal year would be to transform our processes from a semi-manual system to full automation. We intend to achieve an end-to-end automation of all our tax processes.

“AKIRS plans to roll-out electronic assessment, e-tax clearance process, e-filing of tax returns, automation of registration, collection and reporting processes with the ultimate aim of enhancing efficiency in revenue collection, taxpayers’ experience and minimization of human interference,” he stated.

The Executive Chairman assured that the revenue service would be cautious not to embark on any initiatives that will stifle the growth of business or create unnecessary burden on individual taxpayers,

Okon said that the board will improve on its ongoing tax sensitization and enlightenment campaign to raise awareness on tax payment as a civic responsibility and deepen voluntary compliance in the state.

He said Akwa Ibom has performed creditably well in it revenue profile over the years, adding that the state’s IGR rose from N34.75 billion in 2022 to N43.18 billion in 2023 as indicated in the figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics and Joint Tax Board, the apex body for tax authorities and final authority for reporting tax revenues in Nigeria.