BY COBHAM NSA, ABUJA – As Nigerians continue to fight the Coronavirus pandemic turbulence and its attendant adverse effects on the global and sub-regional economy, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is blowing its trumpet of meeting targets and recording massive revenue haul.
This is against the backdrop of downward progression in international oil price which remains Nigeria’s major revenue earner.
According to the Service, its 10.4 per cent increase in the collection target for the first quarter of 2020 (Q1 2020) over the same period in the 2019 fiscal year, is impressive and encouraging.
FIRS’ Director, Communications and Liaison Department, Abdullahi Ismaila Ahmad said a comparative analysis of the two periods indicated that the FIRS collected N1,115,491,053,374.68 in the first quarter of 2020 as N1,046,889,787,060.27 collected within the same period in 2019.
In a statement released in Abuja on Thursday, Ahmad said a massive 568 per cent increase recorded in Capital Gains Tax (CGT) from N96,408,740.90 in Q1 2019 to N643,935,849.06 in Q1 2020 gave FIRS’ revenue its biggest lift during the period under review.
It attributed this impressive performance to the blockage of leakages in the revenue flow by the wide-ranging reforms initiated by FIRS Executive Chairman, Mr. Muhammad Nami, immediately after assuming office in December 2019.
Furthermore, the Service recorded a 522 per cent increase in collection from the National Information Technology Development Fund (NITDEF) to bag N691,206,855.85 in Q12020, compared to N111,037,797.16 realised in Q1 2019
The statement explained that Nami immediately hit the ground running by instituting a regime of policy reforms anchored on deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to block tax leaks and motivate staff by restoring a number of their statutory roles hitherto outsourced to private consultants.
Also during the period under review, Gas Income Tax increased by 286 per cent in Q12020, which amounted to N11,491,627,575.89 as against N2,977,345,332.31 that was earned in Q1 2020.
Similarly, Company Income Tax (CIT) collected in Q1 2020 jumped by 135 per cent to N95,733,194,644.91 from the corresponding figure of N40,696,980,658.52 recorded in Q1 2019, while Stamp Duty collection in Q1 2020 is N4,750,893,578.48, representing a 40 per cent increase compared to the Q1 2019 figure of N3,386,648,663.85
Also, Ahmad explained that in the nation’s education sector, FIRS recorded an 82 per cent increase in its collection of Education Tax that stood at N13,123,624,697.40 in Q12020 compared to N7,229,644,397.68 in Q1 2019.
Both Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and Non-Import Value Added Tax (VAT) also increased by 12.4 per cent in Q1 2020 to N63,296,684,819.79 and N266,264,753,625.13 respectively from the Q1 2019 figures of N57,008,866,617.53 and N236,030,481,054.83.
However, it was not all good news as the Petroleum Income Tax (PIT) Withholding Tax (WHT) and Personal Income Tax (PIT) all dipped in the period under review, a development tax analysts attributed to fluctuations in the price of crude oil in the international market as well as the interregnum witnessed between passing the 2019 Finance Act into law and its coming to effect on February 1, 2020.
Ahmad said going forward with on-going reforms and deployment of more ICT platforms at the FIRS in the second quarter of 2020, the Service expects a brighter outlook in revenue collections in the federation accounts.
