The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it has recorded a 10.4% increase in its collection target for the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in the last fiscal year.
According to a press statement issued yesterday by its spokesman, Abdullahi Ahmad, the FIRS collected N1.115 trillion in the first quarter of 2020. The revenue collection for the Q1 2020 is higher than N1.046 trillion recorded in the same period of 2019.
According to the statement, the agency recorded N643.9billion revenue from Capital Gains Tax in Q1 2020.
Similarly, the Service recorded a 522% increase in collection from the NITDEF to bag N691,206,855.85 in Q12020, compared to N111 billion in Q1 2019.
Since taking the mantle of leadership at the FIRS, Mr. Nami has instituted a regime of policy reforms anchored on deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to block tax leaks and motivated members of staff at the FIRS by restoring a number of their statutory roles hitherto outsourced to private consultants back to the staff.
Also in the period under review, Gas Income Tax increased by 286% in Q12020, which amounted to N11.49 billion compared to N2.97 billion raked in the first quarter of 2020.
Similarly, Company Income Tax (CIT) collected in Q1 2020 increased to 135% to N95,7 billion from the corresponding figure of N40.696 billion recorded in Q1 2019.
Stamp Duty collection in Q1 2020 is N4.75 billion, a 40% increase to the Q1 2019 figure of N3.4 billion.
In the education sector, the FIRS recorded an 82% increase in its collection of Education Tax, resulting in N13.1 billion revenue to the federal coffers in the period under review, against the N7 billion that was received in Q1 2019.
Both NCS and Non-Import Value Added Tax (VAT) also increased by 12.4% in Q12020 N63.3 billion and N266.3 billion respectively from the Q1 2019 figures of N57 billion and N236 billion in that order.
Ahmad attributed the increase in revenue to blockage of leaks in the revenue flow by the reforms launched at the FIRS by its new Executive Chairman, Mr. Muhammad Nami. Ahmad said noted that the agency was able to record the feat despite of turbulence in the global economic system, especially the sharp fall in the price of Nigeria’s major export and top earner – crude oil.
However, Petroleum Income Tax (PIT), Withholding Tax and Personal Income Tax all took a deep in the period under review, a development the agency attributed to fluctuations in the price of crude oil at 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. The statement did not provide details of revenues from PIT.
“Moving forward and as on-going reforms and deployment of more ICT platforms at the FIRS take root in Q22020, the Service expects a brighter outlook in revenue collections,” Ahmad added.