FIRS rakes in record N5.5 trillion in six months – Official

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has announced a total tax revenue collection of N5.5 trillion for the half-year period of January to June 2023.

This is the highest tax revenue collection ever recorded by the Service in any first six months of a fiscal year, the agency said in a statement Thursday.

The statement noted that Muhammad Nami, Executive Chairman of the FIRS, made the disclosure while presenting the 2023-2024 tax revenue outlook to the National Economic Council at its meeting on Thursday, July 20, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The presentation, which contained FIRS’ 2023 Half-Year Collection Report, showed that the FIRS achieved over one hundred per cent of its target for the first half of the year 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.

Mr Nami, in his presentation, further stated that the Service collected a total of N1.65 trillion in tax revenues in June 2023. This sum is 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,” Mr Muhammad 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,” said Mr Nami.

“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,” he concluded.

Commenting on the outlook for the remainder half of the year, the FIRS Executive Chairman gave assurances that the country should expect “better days ahead” in terms of tax revenue collection.

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“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,” said the Executive Chairman.

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.