Abuja — State governors yesterday agreed on the need to enact new tax laws so as to generate more revenue and reduce dependence on oil.

Rising from a three-day seminar themed the 1st National Round-table Strategy Session on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), the governors voiced concern over the dwindling revenue base of the federal, states and local governments.

In a 14-point communiqué issued at the end the seminar held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, the governors attributed the drop in revenue accruable to the three tiers of government to fluctuation in the price of oil.

The communiqué underscored the necessity to "explore and identify alternative sources of revenue so as to forestall the dire consequences of an over-dependence on oil and attain fiscal autonomy."

The outcome of the seminar also stressed the need for governors to create an enabling environment for investments in their various states in order to encourage investors with the resultant effect of increasing revenue sources available to their governments.

The meeting, which resolved on the need to use experts in the collection of taxes in order to strengthen tax collection machineries, also identified the need to hold regular discourse with banks and financial institutions to check under remittances or delay in remittances.

The communiqué read in part: "the stakeholders must work in harmony as part of moves to build the revenue base of the country, even as they also called for workable strategies that would enhance the identification and prioritization of alternative revenue generating channels as well as that all stakeholders participate in the administration of taxes in their respective states."

The governors also resolved on the exigency of reliable databases of taxpayers that would assist policy makers and tax experts in assessing major changes to the tax system and encouraging and transforming Inland Revenue Services in their states by "building more proactive, less reactive and intrusive relationship with communities."