Nigeria earned N35trn from tax in eight years — FIRS

Within an eight-year period covering 2011 and 2018, the country earned a total of N35.56 trillion as tax revenue, statistics obtained from the Federal Inland Revenue Service have revealed.

An analysis of the tax revenue statistics showed that the tax income was earned in two major tax revenue items.

They are oil tax which is generated through the Petroleum Profit Tax and non-oil tax which is generated from seven tax revenue components.

They are company income tax, gas income, capital gains tax, stamp duty, value added tax, education tax and Nigeria Information Technology Development Fund.

An analysis of the N35.56tn tax collection showed that about N17.97tn was earned during the eight-year period from Petroleum Profit Tax. This represents about 50.53 per cent of the entire revenue generated during the eight-year period.

From non-oil tax, the federation earned about N17.59tn which is about 49.47 per cent of the tax revenue for the period under review.

Further analysis of the non-oil tax revenue showed that a huge chunk of the collection was made through companies income tax.

Revenue from this tax component during the period was estimated at N8.75tn representing about 49.74per cent of the non-oil revenue tax collections.

This was followed by VAT revenue collection with N6.68tn. The revenue from VAT accounted for 37.98 per cent of the N17.59 non-oil revenue.

From education tax, N1.58tn was collected, accounting for about 8.98 per cent of the total non-oil revenue.