Governor Abdullahi Adamu has again warned against Nasarawa state's "almost total" dependence on the Federal Government for its revenue. And to help reverse the trend, the government has set in motion, machinery for improving it's internally generated revenue (IGR)

Governor Adamu announced this while presenting the 2004 Budget Proposal to the State House of Assembly. Tagged "Budget of Sustained Development", the budget totally N20.51 billion comprises of N8.26 billion for recurrent expenditure and N12.24 billion as capital expenditure.

Lamenting the poor state of the state's internally generated revenue, Governor Adamu remarked that some unpatriotic elements were short changing the state by avoiding payment of taxes. He however, promised to bring these people to book. Said he, "some selfish individuals who put their selfish ends above the common interests of the state are exploiting existing loopholes to cheat the state and its people. We shall find and seal up all the loopholes and put these unpatriotic elements in our midst out of their dirty businesses. Governor Adamu then announced that the government was introducing poll tax from next year as a way of shoring up it's revenue.

Acknowledging that this might not go down well with some people, Governor Adamu stated that apart from helping to prosecute more people oriented projects, the tax “will help people to appreciate their role as active partners in our forward match".

Among the objectives of the 2004 budget as spelt out by Governor Adamu are:- to stimulate increased food and cash production, to accelerate development of the rural areas, to build a more disciplined, virile and productive civil service.