RIRS Begins Issuance Of Tax Certificates

The Executive Chairman of
the Rivers State Internal Revenue Service (RIRS), Onene Obele-Oshoko, has said that the service has completely automated the issuance of tax clearance certificates as the process now takes about 48 hours.
Obele-Oshoko who disclosed this Tuesday in Port Harcourt, during a stakeholders forum, said the old process lasts for some months because it was manually done, noting that the RIRS would continue to break new grounds in tax administration.
She urged the public to desist from using touts to process tax documents as most of them inflate fees payable by such unsuspecting persons, adding that all payments are done through designated banks.
The RIRS chairman acknowledged that despite efforts to eliminate touts and impersonators of the service from swindling people, some hoodlums still engage in the illegal activities and therefore, gave out toll free numbers to participants to call when confronted by suspected touts for necessary action.
She hinted that the forum was in continuation of concerted efforts, to create awareness, pointing out that the move is yielding the desired result as the message has continued to go down to the people.
Obele-Oshoko, used the opportunity to debunk insinuations in some quarters that the state government was demanding tax from churches and plans to close down those that refused to pay.
According to her, the church does not pay tax, but they should encourage members to pay tax and if the church employs people that they pay salary, those persons are expected to pay their taxes.
In his paper, the Permanent Secretary in charge of Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) in Rivers State, Dr George Nwaeke, stated that tax payers are contributors to government development projects and the provision of social services.
Dr Nwaeke who spoke on the topic: Enhancing Tax Compliance Through Effective Collaboration, noted that tax was not extraction of money from the people, but  as members of a community that help provide services to make life better which is carried out by government.