by crossriverwatch admin
The 2013 annual Calabar Festival and Carnival raked over N350 million naira into the coffers of the Cross River State government.
Peter Oti, Special Adviser to the Cross River State governor on Budget Implementation and Monitoring, revealed this while answering questions from a cross-section of participants at the 2014 Cross River State Budget Analysis, which he presented.
Mr. Oti said those who have been criticizing government investment in the festival need to understand that the Liyel Imoke administration was proactive and looking beyond an oil economy and innovating news ways of reposition the state as a service economy.
Mr. Oti also defended the aggressive and sometimes outrageous taxation policy of the government explaining that it was “unfortunate that most people doing business in the state refuse to voluntarily pay tax. When the tax now accumulates and we approach to collect same, they now react negatively and want to call government all sorts of names. I think this is unfair. If you are doing business in Cross River, your tax is a civic responsibility, an obligation that you must fulfil so that government on her part will be challenged to deliver on her promises”.
The special adviser also appealed to the public to see tax payment as their contribution to turning around the fortunes of Cross River State and expressed hope that citizens will take the appeal seriously and enable Cross River state achieve the N30.9 billion internally generated revenue target.
Culled from www.calitown.com
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