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By Ugochukwu Alaribe

ABA—IN a bid to boost its internally generated revenue and eliminate touting, Abia State government said it has concluded plans to enforce a new revenue regiment in the state, from January, 2018.

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, who stated this during an interactive programme in Aba, lamented that certain constitutional arrangements in the country limits the volume of revenue accruable to the states and assured that his administration is committed to introducing a uniform revenue window to eliminate touting.

The governor also noted that touting is a major problem inhibiting the flow of revenue to the state government, adding that vehicles that come to do business wait on the fringes and come in at night to avoid hoodlums jumping in and seizing their spare tyres and batteries, and vowed to change the trend.

“There is an entirely new IGR regimen that may be before January 2018. That’s why we are saying that that no revenue agent should bother to renew his contract with the government for any revenue window. Be it Ministry, Local government or State. So that we can come up with a uniform revenue regimen that will eliminate touting.

“Those people who hang around the railway line, those people who jump into people’s vehicles. People who come to Aba to do business had to wait at the fringes of the town only to come in at night so that hoodlums will not pounce on them, take away their batteries and spare tyres.

“These things are uncalled for and we can’t continue this way. We are aware that is a tradition that has been entrenched for many years, but we can’t continue to do the same thing the same way and expect a change.”

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