The Cross River government has set up an 18 man Revenue Laws Review Committee to harmonise its existing revenue laws in line with the Federal Government’s Tax Reform Bill.
By Christian Njoku
The Cross River government has set up an 18 man Revenue Laws Review Committee to harmonise its existing revenue laws in line with the Federal Government’s Tax Reform Bill.
The inauguration of the committee which was done by Dr Edwin Okon, Chairman of the state’s Internal Revenue Board in Calabar on Monday saw representatives from the private and public sectors of the state’s economy.
Okon while speaking at the event, said that the committee which has been given four weeks to submit its report have within its ranks a team of professionals from all sectors to look at the revenue laws of the state.
He said they were also to try and align the laws of the state with that of the National Tax reform bill that was still with the legislature.
According to him, “we don’t want to wait for that bill to be passed into law and the state is caught unawares, we are being proactive to look at all our revenue laws and see how to put them in one document.
“Mirror it with the national tax laws and advise the ministry of finance that will now present it as an executive order for consideration and legislation by the state House of Assembly.
“We don’t want the National Assembly to pass the law and when it is operational, we find it difficult to implement in Cross River because we have not harmonised our tax laws with it.”
Okon noted that Cross River was following some states like Kaduna, Lagos among others that have set up similar committees to look into their tax laws and harmonise them with what was coming from the federal.
He added that the plan was to have not more than 10 taxes and to reduce the tax burden on residents of the state.
On her part, Chairman of the committee, Mrs Ekpiken Nkpang said although the tax reform bill was before the National Assembly, Cross River simply wanted to align its tax laws with those of the Federal Government.
Nkpang said the whole idea was to make the state compliant in revenue collection and to change the way revenue was collected in the state which was what the bill at the federal level also sought to achieve.
Similarly, Mr Emmanuel Esira, Secretary of Cross River Board of Internal Revenue who read the committee’s terms of reference said they were to review the new presidential fiscal policy and tax reform bill as it affects the state and sub-nationals.
He added that they where to make recommendations on the implementation of the bill when it is passed into law among others
(NAN)