Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State has signed the 2016 budget bill into law with a promise to work towards achieving minimum of 70 per cent of the budget.
Speaking shortly after he signed the budget in his office, the governor emphasised that this year’s budget signified a major shift from the ways and manners the government carry out its business.
Governor Ahmed further explained that the budget would be implemented with a bulk of resources coming from the Internally Generated Revenue, adding that strong machinery had been put in place to drive the Internally Generated Revenue to support the government to deploy infrastructure to the people across the state.
According to him, “State and Local Governments Revenues would be taken to a level that will be supportive to run efficient government that will deliver on its electioneering campaign promises”.
The governor who identified revenue as a critical ingredient to move the state to a greater height, stressed that success of the state hinged on the success of the Internally Generated Revenue.
“So, our government has put machinery in motion to ensure that the newly established revenue collection body succeeded in its assignment”, the governor said.
The Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Ahmad Ali had earlier in his remarks said the signing of the Budget opened a new chapter in the history of the state.
“Before now”, according to the Speaker, “the state relied substantially on Federal Allocation revenue, but presently, the story was different because of the crash in oil price”.
Hon. Ali tasked the state Revenue Service to strive hard and ensure that every Kwara and others pay tax and also charged the government to strive towards achieving minimum of 70 per cent of the budget.