Nasarawa To Introduce Development Levy, Other Taxes

Nasarawa State government has reiterated its commitment to introduce development levy and other taxes to cushion the effect of the dwindling revenue being faced by the state and to enable it meet its financial obligations.

Acting chairman of Nasarawa State Board of Internal Revenue, Usman Okposhi, disclosed this yesterday in Lafia in a parley with journalists, adding that bills to that effect has been sent to the state assembly.

He said any organisation that is operating within the state must be prepared to pay development levy to the state whenever the bill is passed into law by the lawmakers some of which include surface rent and hotel/restuarant tax.

He said: “We as tax authorities of the state, we have to look inward and find ways of improving the state’s Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, hence we are going to enact a law that everybody should pay development levy on a monthly basis to the government.”

The state revenue boss stated that the state being a home of solid minerals cannot be a home without benefiting from the mineral deposits that abound in the state as the surface rent would ensure that the state benefits from the mineral deposits.

“By the constitution, mineral resources is strictly in the exclusive list but the law says we can go as far as taping our revenue from surface rent from these minerals every year,” he said.

The revenue board’s boss lamented that what comes from the federal allocation is a handout which even if put together with the state IGR cannot meet the yearnings of the state as government has committed itself to a very huge bill of workers’ salaries.