The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), on Thursday indicated that it continued the superlative performance of last year, achieving another first in the half-year between January and June this year, when it recorded a total tax revenue collection of N5.5tr.
It would be recalled that the Service achieved a total collection of N10.1 trillion in the year 2022, being the highest tax collection ever made by the FIRS in a single year.
Presenting the 2023-2024 tax revenue outlook to the National Economic Council at its meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Muhammad Nami, Executive Chairman of the FIRS who announced this, said the service achieved over one hundred percent of its target for the first-half of the year when compared with a mid-year target of N5.3tr.
A breakdown of the FIRS’ 2023 Half-Year Collection Report, showed that tax revenue collected from the oil sector within the period stood at N2.03tr, compared to the N2.3tr target; while non-oil tax collection stood at N3.76tr, much more than the N2.98tr targeted.
Nami, in his presentation, according to a statement by Johannes Oluwatobi Wojuola, his Special Assistant (Media & Communication), further stated that the Service collected a total of N1.65tr tax revenues in June 2023 alone, the highest tax revenue collected by the Service in any single month.
Speaking to what he described as “a good head start, despite stubborn headwinds,” Nami attributed the excellent performance to improved voluntary tax compliance enabled by the automation of FIRS’ tax administrative processes.
“This is a good head start as we work towards meeting our target for the year. And it was achieved despite stubborn headwinds such as the impact of the currency redesign and 2023 General Elections on the economy in the first and second quarters of 2023”, he stressed.
This half-year performance, he continued, was also achieved due to “the continued improvement of automation of our tax administration processes, including the updated VAT filing processes; as well as our dogged engagement with stakeholders in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy.”
Commenting on the outlook for the remainder half of the year, the FIRS Executive Chairman assured that the country should expect “better days ahead” in terms of tax revenue collection.
“We believe that the performance in the second half of the year would be better considering the continuing improvement to our tax administration processes and positive impact of current government’s policies on the economy.”