The Katsina State Government has dismissed claims of inadequate vehicle plate numbers in the state.
Alhaji Isyaku Mohammed, the Executive Chairman of the state’s Internal Revenue Service (KT-IRS), gave the clarification while briefing newsmen in Katsina on Monday.
Mohammed was reacting to a social media post that alleged a lack of number plates had affected revenue generation in the state.
“KASROTA are terrorising the people for not using number plates, in spite of the fact that they know there’s no number in the state,” Mohammed quoted the posting.
Mohammed explained that officials of KASROTA were simply doing their job by enforcing the rule that no vehicle or motorcycle should be on the roads without a number plate.
He said, contrary to the claims, the state government generated over N20.8 billion in Internally Generated Revenue between Dec. 1, 2023, and Dec. 30, 2024, through PAYdirect payments by banks.
Mohammed said that before he assumed office in Nov. 2023, the organisation generated only N9 billion from Dec. 1, 2022 to Dec. 30, 2023.
“I wish to inform you that we have number plates in the state. The issue of saying we don’t have does not even arise,” he said.
He provided evidence of the number plates available, including 1,444 motor vehicle private number plates, 228 for government motor vehicles, and 214 government motorcycle number plates.
“We have 1,886 number plates for motor vehicle commercial, and for motor vehicle dealer number motorcycle we have 24.
“Also, since August 2024, we have deposited N45 million with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), in anticipation of more motorcycle number plates,” he said.
According to him, this is a nationwide issue, and the complaint made by the FRSC was a lack of resources to fabricate motorcycle number plates.
He explained that Gov. Dikko Radda had reduced the price of number plates by 50 per cent in September 2023, but not many people showed interest.
“But for somebody to say we don’t have number plates, it’s not true, we have. I don’t want anybody to use that as an excuse to break the law.
“We have been pursuing people in the IRS who have tampered with the money of the revenue service, therefore we expected corruption to fight back.
“And definitely, we have seen that corruption is fighting back,” he said.