By Benjamin Umuteme
Abuja
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has announced a total tax revenue collection of N5.5 trillion for the half-year period of January to June 2023. This is the highest tax revenue collection ever recorded by the Service in any first six months of a fiscal year.
Executive Chairman of FIRS Mr. Muhammad Nami, stated this while presenting the 2023-2024 tax revenue outlook to the National Economic Council meeting Thursday in Abuja.
The presentation, which contained FIRS’ 2023 Half-Year Collection Report, showed that the Service 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. This sum is the highest tax revenue collected by the Service in any single month.
Speaking of what he described as “a good head start, despite stubborn headwinds,” Mr. Muhammad Nami, attributed the excellent 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”, said Mr Nami.
“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.
Commenting on the outlook for the remainder of the year, the FIRS Executive Chairman gave assurances that the country should expect “better days ahead” in terms of tax revenue collection.
