Nasarawa Orders Arrest Of Private Vehicles Using Govt Number Plates
BY AHMED TUKUR, LAFIA – The Nasarawa State Board of Internal Revenue (NSBIR) has vowed that it would henceforth arrest government functionaries using official number plates on private vehicles to evade tax payment.
Chairman of the Board, Alhaji Yakubu Ahmed, who announced this while briefing newsmen in his office in Lafia, the state capital, said that the board will not tolerate any act of sabotage by individuals as it has set a benchmark of N3 billion monthly revenue generation.
Ahmed said security agencies have already been mandated to check particulars of private vehicles using government number plates with a view to ensure that their papers are up to date else the vehicles would be arrested for prosecution.
He explained that the Board is working round the clock to block all leakages that will arise due to human error, stressing that government officers using official number plates to evade payment of vehicle tax will henceforth be sanctioed and necessary action taken against them in line with the provision of the laws.
Ahmed said; “We had a report from the security and Federal Road Safety Corps calling our attention to the security risk because people will commit crime with these vehicles and the government will not be able to trace who the people are.
“We have instructed the security to impound those vehicles that have government number plate without proper particulars. We notice quite a number of vehicles without number plates, or expired number plates and this is clearly a security challenge.
“The Board has introduced measures to ensure that tax within the state is tracked and remitted to the appropriate authority. We now have a unified billing system that all ministry and departments will make payments for efficiency,” the chairman said.
Ahmed said that the board monitors all government agencies and parastatals to ensure that remitted payments are in line with set out rules and regulation.
He said that if the board is granted autonomy, it will perform better and redesign its mandate for better efficiency.
Ahmed further said; “All payments are done through the bank which will be accessed through our platform to find out the performance of every government agency.
“We have put in place mechanism where we will continue to ensure that whatever charges someone is supposed to pay will have to use the central billing system of the state and in doing that, we can get so
much money for the state,”
He called on all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and other relevant stakeholders in the state to key into meeting the target to reduce dependence on federal allocation.
