FIRS breaks own record, surpasses mid-year revenue target
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has broken its own records by racking in the highest revenue in any six-month period.
Muhammad Nami, FIRS’ executive chairman, told the National Economic Council while giving his half-year report that the service had realized N5.5trillion and exceeded its target of N5.3 trillion for mid-year.
Nami gave the breakdown as follows: oil tax, N2.03 trillion, as against N2.3 trillion targeted; non-oil tax of N3.76 trillion, as against N2.98 trillion earlier estimated; N1.65 trillion tax revenues in June 2023.
Nami described the development as “a good head start, despite stubborn headwinds.” He attributed the feat 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,” Nami said.
“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.
“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 said.
