FIRS records historic N5.5trn tax revenue in six months

By Onome Amuge.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it generated a total tax revenue of N5.5 trillion in the the half-year period of January to June 2023, the highest tax revenue collection ever recorded by the Service in any first six months of a fiscal year.

Muhammad Nami,executive chairman of the FIRS, made the disclosure during his presentation of the 2023-2024 tax revenue outlook to the National Economic Council (NEC) at its latest meeting held on at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The presentation, which contained FIRS’ 2023 Half-Year Collection Report, showed that the FIRS generated over one 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, compared to a target of N2.3 trillion. Similarly, 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 Service collected a total of N1.65 trillion tax revenues in June 2023. This, according to him, is the highest tax revenue collected by the Service in any single month.

The FIRS executive chairman, who described the half year result as a good start despite stubborn headwinds, attributed the strong 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 said.

According to Nami, the half-year performance was achieved as a result of improved voluntary tax compliance by taxpayers, the continued improvement of automation of the Service’s tax administration processes, including the updated VAT filing processes; as well as the FIRS’ dogged engagement with stakeholders in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy.

Commenting on the outlook for the full year, the FIRS, Nami expressed confidence 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,” he added