ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, has rejected the claims of high taxation in the state, describing them as a pathetic misconception promoted by the opposition and beneficiaries of the old order, who manipulated revenue collection to fatten their private pockets.
Mbah insisted that his administration had grown the states Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, by widening the tax net to bring in more taxable persons, blocked revenue leakages, and tackled sharp practices that hitherto drained public revenues by introducing Consolidated Demand Notice, e-ticketing as well as recovery, optimisation, and monetisation of the state’s assets.
He stressed that the Enugu State Government did not have power to increase or reduce taxes under the 1999 Constitution, as it was the exclusive preserve of the federal government.
The governor spoke during an interview aired by Afia Television.
He said, “First, as a state, we are not able to legislate on taxation. It is in the exclusive legislative list, which can only be legislated on by the National Assembly. Whether it is your Personal Income Tax, your Company Income Tax, your Value Added Tax or your Withholding Tax, those taxes can only be legislated on by the National Assembly”.
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Mbah said that those framing the false narratives could not come to terms that his administration could scale up the state’s IGR from N26.8bn the state recorded in 2022 to N37.4bn by the end of 2023, N180.5bn in 2024, and N406.7bn in 2025.
“I think for those framing this false narrative, it is beyond their imagination that we could optimise our dormant assets and grow our revenue exponentially.
“They fail or refuse to take note of the fact that in 2025, for instance, tax revenue accounted for for only N51.5bn or 12.6 per cent of the N406.7bn IGR, while non-tax revenue was N355.2bn or 87.4 per cent,” the governor added.
As for the areas within the states’ competence, such as rates and levies, Mbah explained that his administration had already taken steps to crash the payable amounts for certain services provided by Enugu State Government.
“For those rates and fees, we constituted a committee that also included market leaders, organised labour, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, among others, which went around to get what the other states within the South East were charging.
“It turned out that Enugu is the lowest in the South East. But that notwithstanding, we crashed that rates even further by 70 per cent especially in land sectors,” he stated.
He, however, acknowledged the activities of illegal revenue collectors, saying the recently passed Enugu State Harmonised Taxes and Levies (Approved List for Collection) Law, 2026, would finally eliminate road blocks and unauthorised collections that have burdened residents of the State.
He added that the government will up enforcement and public enlightenment to checkmate the activities of extortionists.
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“Under our laws, we have consolidated all these services and you only just have one payment that you make and you are done with all the services that the government provides.
“Some people still go about extorting money from helpless citizens because this is a practice that has gone on over the years. But we have constituted a standing task force to track and bring them to book. We also want the citizens to report them.
“We now have several toll-free lines where citizens can call freely. They do not have to have airtime to place such calls,” he said.