ANAMBRA STATE IRS PUSHES REVENUE STAMPS MORE AGGRESSIVELY

The internal revenue service (IRS) of Anambra State, now headed by Mr. Richard Nworah Madiebo (who took over last month as the agency’s Executive Chairman/CEO from Dr. David Nzekwu), is pushing revenue stamps more aggressively to further grow its internally generated revenue (IGR) in 2022 and beyond.

This is contained in a Facebook post by Anambra State Internal Revenue Service (AiRS) today, signed by Mrs. Sylvia Tochukwu-Ngige, its Head of Taxpayer Education and Enlightenment Team.

The statement read, “Anambra State Government in a bid to diversify her economy to boost her Internally Generated Revenue launched Stamp Duties Office and Revenue Stamps on November 7, 2019, at Professor Dora Akunyili Women’s Development Centre, Awka. This is in line with the provisions of the Stamp Duties Act, LFN, 2004, as amended, Federal Government Financial Regulations 2009 and Anambra State Stamp Duties (Recovery and Collection) Regulation 2016.”

Mrs. Tochukwu-Ngige added, “In compliance with this, the Chairman/Chief Executive, Anambra State Internal Revenue Service, Mr Richard Nworah Madiebo, appealed to all commissioners, Head of Service, Chairmen of Civil Service Commission, Local Government Service Commission, Judiciary Commission, and Anambra State House of Assembly Commission, Principal Secretaries to the Executive Governor and the Deputy Governor, all Permanent Secretaries, Clerk of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Chief Registrars of Judiciary, and Customary Court of Appeal, Accountant General and Auditor General of Anambra Stated and all Heads of Extra-Ministerial Departments in the State to direct all staff under them to make compulsory use of Anambra State Revenue Stamps on all payment receipts. They are also to direct them to forward all kinds of agreements and other chargeable documents to the Commissioner for Stamp Duties for proper assessment and stamping.”

Sylvia explained that, “Revenue stamps are not for posting letters; they are for individual transactions within Anambra State. With its launch, the State Government made it compulsory that all transactions within Anambra State territory above N1,000 must have Anambra State Revenue Stamp affixed on the receipt.”

“Approved transaction range and volume for goods or services rendered within Anambra State territory are as follows: N50 worth of stamp for transactions between N1,000 and N10,000; N100 for transactions of N10,001-N50,000; N500 for N50,001-N500,000; N1,000 for N500,001-N1,000,000; N5,000 for N1,000,001 and above.”

With N28.01 billion in 2020, Anambra was the 10th biggest in IGR among Nigeria’s 37 subnationals. It had grown it’s IGR consistently every year from 2017-2020, the period when the agency was headed by David Nzekwu.

The state collected N17.37 billion in IGR in 2017, N19.31 billion in 2018, N26.37 billion in 2019 and N28.01 billion in 2020. Nzekwu was very bullish in an interview he granted to REVENUE magazine (a publication of Alford Conferences Limited) in January 2022, projecting that, with the right incentives and enablement, Anambra would grow its collections to about N50 billion in 2022.

Anambra led the South East Zone in IGR in 2020, but the zone itself ranked fifth in the country, behind South West, South-South, North Central and North West in that order. The zonal performance in IGR in that year was: SW N560.96 billion, SS N263.16 billion, NC N181.60 billion, NW N146.75 billion, SE N96.72 billion, and NE N56.84 billion.

Mr. Frederick Apeji
Abuja, FCT