The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has announced a total tax revenue collection of N5.5 trillion in the first half of the year.
Mr. Muhammad Nami, Executive Chairman of the FIRS, disclosed this while presenting the 2023-2024 tax revenue outlook to the National Economic Council at its meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, this afternoon.
Mr. Johannes Wojuola, the Chairman’s Special Assistant (Media & Communication), quoted Mr. Nami as describing the collection as “the highest tax revenue recorded by the Service in any first six months of a fiscal year.”
The 2023 Half-Year Collection Report, showed that the FIRS achieved over one hundred percent 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, 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 tax revenues in June 2023, the highest tax revenue collected by the Service in any single month.
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.
Speaking of what he described as “a good head start, despite stubborn headwinds,” Mr. Muhammad Nami, attributed the 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.
“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 said.
Commenting on the outlook for the remainder of the year, the Executive Chairman gave assurances that the country should expect “better days ahead” in terms of tax revenue collection.
According to Mr. Nami, “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 the current government’s policies on the economy.”
