By Peter Duru

Makurdi—THE Paramount Ruler of Idoma Kingdom, Chief Elias Obekpa, has urged Benue State government to partner the traditional institution to improve its internally-generated revenue, IGR.

The royal father, who gave the advise yesterday when he hosted the new management team of the state’s Board of Internal Revenue Service, BIRS, led by Acting Chairman, Mr. Terzungwe Atser, in Otukpo,  said: “In the era of native authorities, local chiefs were entrusted with responsibilities of collecting community taxes, which effectively checked leakages and boosted government revenue at the time.”

Earlier, Mr. Atser sought the cooperation of the royal father, noting that “some challenges I met on ground are double taxation, illegal road blocks for illegal tax collections, tax evasion among others.”