FIRS breaks record, generates N5.5trn in six months

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has collected a total tax revenue of N5.5 trillion from January to June 2023.

This is the highest tax revenue collection ever recorded by the FIRS in any first six months of a fiscal year.

The Executive Chairman of the Service, Muhammad Nami, stated this while presenting the 2023-2024 tax revenue outlook to the National Economic Council (NEC) at its meeting held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Thursday, July 20, 2023.

The presentation, which contained ‘FIRS 2023 Half-Year Collection Report’, showed that the Service achieved over 100 per cent of its target for the first-half of the year when compared with a mid-year target of N5.3 trillion.

According to the report, tax revenue collected from the oil sector from January to June 2023 stood at N2.03 trillion, as against a target of N2.3 trillion; while non-oil tax collection stood at N3.76 trillion, as against a target of N2.98 trillion.

Nami, in his presentation, further stated that the FIRS collected a total of N1.65 trillion tax revenues in June 2023, noting that the sum is the highest tax revenue collected by the Service in any single month.

Speaking on 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 election on the economy in the first and second quarters of 2023.

“This half-year performance was achieved as a result of improved voluntary tax compliance by taxpayers, 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,” Nami was quoted in a statement issued by Johannes Oluwatobi Wojuola, Special Assistant to the Executive Chairman (Media and Communication).

Speaking on the outlook for the remainder half of the year, the FIRS 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,” Nami added.

It would be recalled that the FIRS generated N10.1 trillion in the year 2022, being the highest tax collection ever made by the Service in a single year.

The Star