GOVERNOR UMAHI CONSTITUTES COMMITTEE TO BOAST MINING REVENUE GENERATION IN THE STATE

The Ebonyi state Gov Chief Dave Umahi has constituted committees to harmonize the operations, taxes and levies being paid by mining companies and quarry operators to boost revenue generation in the state.
21 member central committee was setup and headed by the deputy Gov Dr Kelechi Igwe with the comr for justice and attorney general, Chief Augustine Nwankwaegu as the secretary and three sub committees to operate at the zonal level in synergy
with the central body.
Gov Umahi announced the composition of the committee before inaugurating the central body during a meeting with quarry operators, community leaders, town union executives and traditional rulers at the Akanu Ibiam conference centre Abakaaliki, worried about the poor level of internally generated revenue accruing to the state, the Gov the interaction with all the stakeholders in the quarry industry and other mineral resources became necessary to streamline the operations and come up with a roadmap on how to improve revenue generation and encourage investment, he noted that it was laughable to boast of only N160m as monthly IGR to the state.
The central committee has among other things as its terms of reference the mandate to identify all levies been charged and who collects them, the method of collecting the levies and the problems of collecting them. others include to identify all crises between quarry owners and anybody, identify their terms of agreements between landlords and quarry owners as well as other untapped mineral resources in the state.
‪#‎The‬ Gov frowned at a situation where crises has continued to exist between quarry operators and community leaders and atimes with youth bodies over collection of levies, while some investors have abandoned their host communities to suffer without performing their social responsibilities.
The Gov threatened to revoke the licence of quarry operators and the land where they operate in ezzillo. the Gov at the meeting proscribed Ebonyi youth Assembly from collecting illegal levies from the stone crushers enterprise and appealed to youths of the area as well as community leaders not to be hostile to investors.
The committee was given two weeks to submit its findings and recommendations to the state Govt.