On the 4th of January 2023 the editor-in-chief of Katsina City News had an exclusive interview with Mustapha Sirajo, the Chairman of Katsina State Internal Revenue Service. After the interview we received an issue of the Revenue Magazine of December 2022 published by Alford Conference Limited. We are re-producing the interview of Revenue Magazine in this edition and will publish our interview in our next edition.
Mr Mustapha Mohammed Sirajo has twenty four years post-graduation and twenty years working experience. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Bayero University, Kano in 1998 and a Master’s degree in Banking and Finance also from Bayero University, Kano in 2008. He has immense computer knowledge on both harduare and software, being Cisco Certified in 1T Essentials(Hardnare and Sofiware). He worked at Bank of the North Limited, Gusan Branch, from June 2000-Jannary 2001, from where he moved to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FTRS). He has worked as a core professional in several FIRS offices, unitsand departments among which are Sokoto, Kano and Funtua Ta Offices, Tax Audit Department, North Central and North East Regional Tax Audit, Tax Policy Department, Tax Controller at Katsina Miaro and Small Tax Office, and Office of the Special Assistant (Technical) to the Executive Chairman of FIRS. In November 2020 the Katsina State Government appointed bim as De Chairman/CEO of Katsina State Internal Revenue Service, where he is currenthy serving. He holds the folloving professional qualifications: Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN); Certified National Accountant; Member of the Chartered Institute of Forensics and Certified Fraud Examiners of Nigeria; Distinguished Fellow of the Chartered Institute of lnformation and Strategy Management; Distinguisbed Fellowof the Institte of Organizational and Administrative Risk Management; Fellon Professional Mentor and Coach of the Institute of Mentoring and Coaching, Nigeria; Associate of the Institute of Debt Recovery Practitioners of Nigeria; and Fellonw of the Chartered Institute of Corporate Administrators of Nigeria. In this question and answer session, the Katsina State revenue bos spoke about his efførts to deploy technology extensively to reform and restructure the state’s revenue agency, and to position it for successful and sustanable gronwth in the months and) years ahead.
Until your appointment as the Executive Chairman of Katsina State Internal Revenue Service (KTIRS), you were a Senior Manager at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in Abuja. From such exposure at the federal level, what did you bring to the table for Katsina State?
My appointment was premised on the resolve of the State Government under the leadership of His Excellency the Executive Governor, Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari to reform the Revenue Agency to be able to provide the needed funding of the State for infrastructural development. Consequent upon this, I came in to restructure and reform the Agency to a modern Revenue Authority that will run effectively and efficiently.
As you took over the leadership of KTIRS on January 1, 2021, what did you meet on the ground?
Without sounding cynical, I must tell you it was a really shocking experience for me coming from whereI came from. There was Virtually nothing to start with and will tell you, for someone like me that is an ambassador of the FIRS, I know aside from delivering the expectations of the State, I also have a responsibility to uphold the image of my principal agency, the FIRS so it made life at the beginning very exhausting because I thought I was coming to build upon something, but I met nothing I could build upon that will give the State a structure that will guaranty sustainable revenue assurance. What really kept me going was the commitment I saw in the members of staff, despite lack of structure, motivation and empowerment, there was Commitment, and I capitalized on that.
The internal revenue service of some states in Nigeria today that have full administrative and financial autonomy; and they have taken advantage of such incentive to deliver exceptional performance in their tax and other revenue collections. They retain a portion of their cost ofcollection, ranging from 3%- 10%. What is the current position at KTIRS in these areas?
I met a financial autonomous agency that is given a cost of collection to run their activities. Salaries, pensions and all other financial obligations pertaining to the agency are handled from the cost of collection account of the agency.
Your performance figures for 2019, 2020, and 2021 show a consistent growth during this period which was largely characterized by national and global economic disruptions caused by the Covid 19 pandemic. What measures did the agency put in place to stabilize its operations during this difficult period?
Like I mentioned earlier, the commitment of the staff and the extra ordinary support of the government saw the state through the difficult era of Covid 19 pandemic.
As far as your revenue collection is concerned, where in Katsina State are your major centres?
Well, the truth is we have just commenced our reform process and one of our vision is to minimize vulnerability of any part of the state being at a disadvantage. Right now the major revenue earner for the state is the PAYE, Road taxes and Lands. We are still expanding the scope and improving the already captured.
How has the security situation in recent times in the North West zone impacted on revenue collections in Katsina State?
Katsina State has really been hit by the insecurity in the zone. I can tell you we have close to 11 local governments that require assistance as against collection. We have had to close revenue down offices around there. It has not been easy and we try to improvise, but with insecurity, you have your limits.
What is the state of technology adoption currently in your agency today?
Like I said earlier, I came from an agency that is technology driven to an agency that is nowhere in technology appreciation, I took the bull by the horn. Having seen what is on ground (nothing), I decided I will do a total transformation of the agency. We got our revenue law passed, this law saw the establishment of the Katsina State Internal Revenue Service which is the operational arm of the Katsina State Internal Revenue Board. The state legislature was wonderful in that process and they have always been supportive. The revenue board did not even have something as basicas a website when I came. In my two years in office, we have been able to achieve the following: deployed have a website for the Service (irs. kt.gov.ng); we now have a functional online payment platform, making it very easy for taxpayers to remit their taxes online; created a revenue administration platform Integrated Tax Administration System, ITAS); and integrated with the Joint Tax Board Server to Pull and Push taxpayer data thereby giving the state a taxpayer data base. Katsina is now lave on NIMC portal for identity Confirmation for vehicles registration and renewals; we
have automated some of our internal operations like the stores, central motor registry, and finance; and now own a dedicated cloud server. We are in the process of creating and linking all our systems to a workgroup, which will allow us have an intranet for the service internal activities.
And our new MLA VCentral platform is linked to the NVIS for automatic upload of allocated plate numbers. These are some activities we have commenced in our drive to leverage technology for effective revenue administration for Katsina State.
PAYE (pay as you earn) is relatively easier to collect, compared to direct assessment tax. What are you doing to improve your performance in this informal sector?
We started by restructuring the functional units and offices to allow for effective schedule assignment, and also for efficient monitoring and evaluation. We have four Zonal offices each overseeing area revenue offices under them. I have recently Created direct assessment/ presumptive tax (DA/PT) directorates in all the zonal offices to administer DA and PT. The Planning Research Statistics Department monitors their pertormance and and reports to me periodically.
We have looked at your results for 2021. Now that the year has almost ended, what should we expect as your total IGR for 2022?
You know the most difficult part of revenue administration is the reform process period. You are dealing with keeping a tab on your collections and at the same time, moving away from what the tax payer is used to, and bringing new ways of doing things. Both the taxpayer and administrator has to be kept on check and on course. This notwithstanding however, we hope to meet our set target for the year and continue climbing the ladder.
culled from a Magazaine titled “Revenue” of december 2022.
