EXAMINATION OF THE TREND IN INTERNALLY GENERATED REVENUE OF KWARA STATE SINCE 2015

Abstract

In response to the Federal Government directive that States should improve on their internally generated Revenue and not depend solely on Federal allocation for its sustenance, the Kwara State Government, in its effort to increase its revenue base, signed into law on June 22, 2015 the Kwara State Revenue Administration Law 2015 (Law No.6 of 2015), thus giving birth to the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service, (KWIRS) and abolishing the old Kwara Board of Internal Revenue (KBIR). The State started to witness unprecedented increase in its IGR but suffered a majo decline in the year 2020 due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic. The State IGR however picked up in 2021 after the pandemic had subsided. This study discovered that while the Kwara State Government witnessed about 56 percent decrease in IGR in the Covid-19 Pandemic year, the IGR at the Federal level did not experience a significant decrease when compared to the State, this is because the Federal Government continue generating revenue through some outlets that are exclusive to it like Seaports, Valued Added Tax, and the Telecommunication industry amongst others. The study discovered that increased adoption of technology and steady blockage of leakages within the tax system can be credited for the increase in IGR post Covid-19. The paper also discovered that Kwara State introduced some innovations that helped it to generate revenue during the Pandemic. The paper concludes that revenue organizations should adhere to global best practices in its revenue administration.

Keywords: Internally Generated Revenue, Kwara State Internal Revenue Service, Revenue Tax Administration, Taxation