Abia Introduces Autoreg to Improve Internal Revenue


Abia State has introduced Auto-Registration (AutoReg) of all vehicle categories with the hope that the innovation would contribute significantly to help realise its internally generated revenue (IGR) target of N1 billion per month.

The Chairman of Abia State Board of Internal Revenue (BIR), Udochukwu Ogbonna, said that AutoReg would reduce the perennial revenue leakages which the state has been contending with over the years due to activities of revenue touts and their collaborators in the civil service.

He said revenue touts have been sacked from all the premises of the motor licensing authority across the state, adding that the era of issuing fake licences was over.

Ogbonna warned members of the public not to patronise the touts who are always milling around tax offices soliciting for vulnerable motorists who they will exploit and in most cases issue them with fake vehicles papers.

"As I'm talking to you we have many fake motor licence plates we have retrieved from people who have come to renew their vehicle particulars," he said, warning that the board would descend heavily on touts found still milling around licensing offices.

According to him, a task force has already been constituted to deal with the problem of touting and they have received the mandate to clear the touts from all premises of the licensing authority.

The BIR boss noted that AutoReg was already in vogue in at least 26 states of the federation and the system has proven to be very effective; hence Abia has deemed it necessary to key into the new system in order to reap from the many benefits, including identifying stolen vehicles.

"If a car that is registered in Abia state is stolen and taken to any of the states that operates AutoReg, (for registration), as the engine and chassis numbers are logged into the system it will show that the car has been registered before," he explained.

The BIR chairman also said that AutoReg system is fool proof in revenue leakages as it has no room for the staff of the board to collect cash from customers, who now have to pay the requisite registration fees in the banks, collect receipts and use the document to process their vehicle registration.

He said that the revenue courts and the security agencies are working in tandem to assist the state in the implementation of the IGR policy of government, adding that defaulters would be prosecuted in any of the five revenue courts and those found guilty would be punished accordingly.

To milk Abians Mr T.A