Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it collected a total of N5.5 trillion as tax revenue for the half-year period of January to June 2023.
This was the highest tax revenue collection ever recorded by the Service in any first six months of a fiscal year.
Executive Chairman of the FIRS, Muhammad Nami stated this while presenting the 2023-2024 tax revenue outlook to the National Economic Council, NEC at its meeting held on Thursday, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The presentation, which contained FIRS’ 2023 Half-Year Collection Report, indicated that the agency 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.
The report further showed that the 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.
In his presentation, Nami further stated that the FIRS collected a total of N1.65 trillion tax revenues in June 2023. This sum is the highest tax revenue collected by the Service in any single month.
Speaking to what he described as “a good head start, despite stubborn headwinds,” FIRS boss attributed the excellent performance to improved voluntary tax compliance enabled by the automation of FIRS’ tax administrative processes.
Nami said“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.”
On the outlook for the remainder half of the year, the FIRS boss gave assurances that the country should expect “better days ahead” in terms of tax revenue collection.
The FIRS Executive Chairman added, “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.”
The agency 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.
