The Katsina State Government says it will close all bank accounts of Ministries, Departments and Agencies on February 14 as it begins the implementation of the Treasury Single Account.
Executive Chairman, Katsina State Internal Revenue Service, Alhaji Isiyaku Muhammad, disclosed this in an interview.
Muhammad, who spoke with newsmen on Wednesday in Katsina, said the TSA will be hosted by Polaris Bank, while other linked accounts would be at other banks with effect from February 15.
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He further explained that the government had designed an application: “Katsina State Integrated Revenue Management System,” to ensure effective implementation of the new policy.
He said: “The Codification Law of Katsina State gives power to Katsina State Internal Revenue Service to harmonise the collection of all taxes, both state and local governments.
“Whatever is coming, either a tax or non tax revenue, will come through the gateway of that system.
“It will then pass through the bridge called Pay Direct, then to the TSA and then the Consolidated Revenue Account.
“But local government funds will only pass through TSA for record purposes.”
According to Muhammad, the state committee on TSA, which he chairs, had earlier studied the formats being used in states like Kaduna and Kano in order to avoid problems during implementation.
He added: “Initially, we intended to start in January 2024, but we deferred it to February 15, 2024.
“The reason was to address all possible challenges and avoid problems of delay in payment of January salaries.”
Muhammad further revealed that the TSA committee had met with local government chairmen and intimated them about the codification law of the state.
The law, he said, has directed each local government to have a revenue collection committee for prudence and accountability.
He said that vendors would be engaged and would use PoS machines to collect revenue.
He said: “We have already discussed with Access Bank to supply us PoS at all the collection centres.
“There will no longer be cash revenue collection.
“Anybody who collects cash will be dismissed and handed over to the police.
“In areas where there is no network coverage, the PoS machines will key in transactions and whenever the network is available, it will offload it.”
Muhammad, therefore, urged the people of the state to pay their taxes promptly through the new format to enable the government to provide them with more dividends of democracy.