Kano state government would accord priority to Internally Generated Revenue in its 2017 budget, with a view to financing the fiscal year locally and to avoid
budget deficit and its associated problems.
The state governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje revealed this during a one day Interactive Session on Kano 2017 Budget, for political office holders, top government functionaries and senior officials in the state Civil Service.
“We assure you that our budget will be a budget of ‘Sustainable Self Reliance’ so that the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is given top priority,” the governor stated.
Governor Ganduje said that the Kano Internal Revenue Service (KIRS) was reformed and competent staff were engaged to re-position the agency for efficient service delivery, adding that new strategies for persuading the people to pay tax were also introduced.
He explained that the state’s revenue has improved over the last one year to the extent that some of the funds are being used to finance development projects. The governor pointed out that some projects now bear the inscription “Tax Payers Project” to indicate that the IGR is judiciously spent and to encourage tax paying culture, warning that a Tax Payers Court was constituted to penalize defaulters.
The governor stressed that his administration has as its watchword continuity, consolidation, fine tuning and new initiative, lamenting that inherited liabilities, dwindling of economy, weak IGR and cost of governance are some obstacles bedeviling the state.
In this connection, Governor Ganduje said the salaries and allowances of the political appointees in state were reduced by 50 percent to trim down the cost of governance, challenging any appointee who is not comfortable with the arrangement to resign forthwith.
In her speech, the state Commissioner of Budget and Planning, Barr. Zubaida Damakka Abubakar said the Ganduje administration decided to opt for the reducing of non-core projects and blockage of wasteful expenditure, pointing out that with this development, the 2017 proposed expenditure by ministries, departments and agencies were also reduced by the Budget Office in order to come up with balanced and sustainable estimates.
Earlier, the state Head of Service, Auwalu Na’iya said despite the daunting and challenge of inadequate resources, Governor Ganduje has recorded unprecedented achievements in terms of people-oriented policies and programmes.
Alh. Na’iya thanked him for reinvigorating the State Civil Service to face the present day challenges, pointing out that the different reforms introduced and implemented by the administration, such as streamlining the civil service, are yielding positive result.