At a point in the recent past, Delta State, South-South Nigeria has had   to depend entirely on oil revenue shared between the Federal Government and the states to power the numerous needs of its teeming population.

Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) was almost non-existent and just little attention was paid to the fact that diversifying the economy of the state would in no way birth a robust pool of funds to finance the huge infrastructural needs of the state.

Before 2009, the Delta State Board of Internal Revenue (DBIR) which was run as a strictly civil service affair could only generate a miserly N1.2bn as monthly revenue.

In the period before 2009, the DBIR was, prior to the passage of the Delta State Consolidated Revenue Law, headed by the most senior civil servant who was then known as the administrator.

The law enabled the former Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, to appoint professionals outside the civil service structure to manage tax in the state and allowing the board report directly to the governor.

Joel Onowakpo-Thomas

With the appointment of the Hon. Joel Onowakpo-Thomas led-board, which was given a mandate to increase the state’s IGR, the tone was set for the transformation of the revenue generation and collection agency.

Between 2009 and 2011, the Board embarked upon the massive building of capacity for employees of the organisation, introducing a new work culture, massive media enlightenment campaign and intensified efforts at blocking all leakages in the tax system.

Moreover, the full automation of the entire system and activities, including the DBIR zonal offices in Ughelli, Deco Road and the DBIR office in Asaba was embarked upon with a satellite linkage to the headquarters in Warri.

Also achieved within the period was the full automation of the entire collection process, the e-receipts process, a stronger legal and enforcement processes for the Board, the introduction of the Tax Professionals Scheme to ‘trap’ all available companies in the state and an aggressive attempt to consolidate all revenue collecting Ministries, Departments and Parastatals.

Currently the Board generates a monthly IGR of N4.2bn, with a total revenue collection of about N255.298bn during the period under review.

Overall, the DBIR was able to increase revenue collection by 550 per cent during the period covered, but experienced a dip in revenue in 2013 when Shell and Chevron, the state’s largest formal taxpayers decided to divest.

However, there is a projected increase in the tax revenue by 70 per cent, based on processes already being put in place by Hon. Joel-Onowakpo.

The commissioning of the multi-million naira headquarters of the DBIR and 25 modern tax office buildings across the state was the icing on the cake for an organisation that was run like every other civil service organisation before Hon. Joel-Onowakpo over.

Apart from the headquarters in Warri, a glass house headquarters annex was built in Asaba, five modern zonal offices have been completed in Agbor, Effurun, Ughelli, Oleh and other offices in Otu Jeremi and Oghara.

Also, a data recovery centre has been constructed in Koko, while 10 additional offices have been built in Ogbe-Ijoh, Ovwian, Sapele, Patani, Burutu, Ozoro, Ashaka, Ogwashi-Uku and Issele-Uku. In addition, the existing structure of the DBIR was tinkered to meet the current challenges of a modern tax management body.

Specifically, the Enforcement and Compliance Department ensures that the Board would no longer be perceived as a barking, and not a biting bulldog.

Since the inception of the board, at least 55 cases have been successfully prosecuted, and over N1.2bn has been recovered from the companies and individuals. More funds are expected to be raked in with a number of cases still pending.

These laudable objectives could not have been achieved without the motivation of the workforce by the tax management board.

To this end, staff salaries were increased astronomically to kill any temptation of pilfering the accruing revenue and employees were given aggressive technological training to effect a total shift from manual operation to electronic-based operation.

In fact, the salaries of staff were increased by about 3,000 per cent by the Board to ensure that compensation did not become a distraction. One of the ways the Board also motivated employees was through the acquisition of about 82 modern vehicles to aid the movement of staff, especially those in the field.

Overseas trainings were organised for staff with intent to acquire most recent taxation skills in four countries to make DBIR the best amongst equals. At least 64 generating sets have been procured and distributed to the offices as alternative power supply.

As things stand, Delta IGR should be able to fund 100 per cent of the state’s recurrent expenditure in the medium term.

The Board also targets about N73bn this year alone, with the projected inclusion of 100,000 taxpayers from the informal sector and addition of at least 10 professional/market associations.

Impressed with the giant strides made by the Board, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, of Delta during the commissioning of the headquarters in Warri, noted that the activities of the board have assisted him in his vision of a ‘Delta Beyond Oil’.

The governor noted that the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) has hit 550 per cent since 2007, adding that the huge achievement did not come without its challenges.

The governor who was represented by the state Commissioner for Finance, Chief Kenneth Okpara said the six-storey building was aimed at achieving the vision of the Delta Beyond Oil.

“The State has generated over 550 per cent IGR and is well on track to generating enough IGR to fund the entire recurrent expenditure.

“The DBIR building was constructed with the vision of a Delta Beyond Oil aimed at diversifying the state revenue base and reduce dependence on federal revenue allocation.

“Our dream of revamping the DBIR started in 2009 with the Delta consolidated internal revenue law. Since the Bill was signed into law, I have not looked back in giving the Board the needed support to excel.

“Due to the volume of human capital investment, we envisaged that a corporate organisation like DBIR should not operate in a rented apartment.

“This provided the impetus for us to embark on aggressive construction of 15 offices spread across the three senatorial districts of the state,” Uduaghan said.

He added that the state had also launched the Board Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in line with global practices. Uduaghan solicited the cooperation of the people in order to achieve the Delta Beyond Oil initiative.

In his speech, Chairman of the DBIR, Hon. Joel-Onowakpo Thomas, said that with the kind of infrastructure being put in place, it would encourage people to embrace voluntary tax compliance.