FIRS generates N1.115trn in 3 months

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has recorded a 10.4 per cent increase in its revenue drive in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period last year.

FIRS, in a press statement issued on Thursday by its spokesman, Abdullahi Ahmad, said that it collected N1.115 trillion in the first quarter of 2020, adding that the revenue collection for Q1 2020 was higher than the N1.046 trillion recorded in the same period of 2019. The tax agency said that it realised N643.9billion from Capital Gains Tax during the period.

Similarly, the FIRS recorded a 522 per cent increase in collection from the NITDEF to cap at N691.206 billion in Q12020, compared to N111 billion in Q1 2019. Since he assumed office as FIRS chairman, Mr Muhammad Nami has instituted a regime of policy reforms anchored on deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to block tax leakages and motivate the members of staff by restoring a number of their statutory roles which were outsourced to private consultants.

Also, during the period under review, Gas Income Tax increased by 286 per cent, which amounted to N11.49 billion compared to N2.97 billion raked in the first quarter of 2019. Similarly, Company Income Tax (CIT) collected in Q1 2020 increased by 135 per cent to N95.7 billion from the corresponding figure of N40.696 billion recorded 2019.

Stamp Duty collection in Q1 2020 was N4.75 billion, a 40 per cent increase to the Q1 2019 figure of N3.4 billion. In the education sector, the FIRS recorded an 82 per cent increase in its collection of Education Tax, resulting in N13.1 billion to the federal coffers as against the N7 billion that was received in Q1 2019.

Both NCS and Non-Import Value Added Tax (VAT) also increased by 12.4 per cent in Q12020 N63.3 billion and N266.3 billion respectively from the Q1 2019 figures of N57 billion and N236 billion in that order.

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. (Leadership)