By Nathan Nwakamma

The Bayelsa Government says its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) rose from N1.2 billion to N5 billion by February.

The Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Mrs Ebiuwou Koku-Obiyai, said this on Friday, while giving a breakdown of the state’s revenue profile for January and February.

Koku-Obiyai affirmed the administration’s commitment to transparency and accountability.

She attributed the rise in IGR to reforms at the Bayelsa Board of Internal Revenue and recently introduced electronic ticketing for revenue collection.

She urged the people of Bayelsa to support the new method and gave assurance that the state government would judiciously deploy the revenue in the development of the state.

Giving details of the IGR for January and February, the Technical Adviser to Bayelsa Governor on Treasury and Accounts, Mr Timipre Seipolu, said the state received N36.86 billion from FAAC in January.

Seipolu said that after recurrent and capital payments, the state had N178.94 billion in its treasury.

He also said that the state received N40.4 billion from the Federation Account in February.

According to him, the state is deliberately allocating more resources to capital projects in the ratio of N4 billion recurrent expenditure to N78 billion capital expenditure in February.

The governor’s aide also attributed the steady rise in the state’s IGR to its expanded revenue base, including the enhanced taxation from the implementation of the N80,000 minimum wage for civil servants. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Sam Oditah