FIRS Generates N1.7trn In 3 Months

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) generated N1.17trillion in the first quarter of 2018 from the collection of different tax types.

A report published by The Punch stated that the sum represents a significant leap over the N778.19bn recorded in the first quarter of last year.
Citing a letter written by the FIRS Chairman, Mr. Tunde Fowler, to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, the paper reported that the amount generated in the first quarter of this year is N393.39bilion in excess of what was generated in the first three months of last year.
In the letter entitled: ‘Brief on revenue projections performance for the period January to March 2018’, Fowler wrote: “The analysis shows that we have so far collected the sum of N1,171,588,583,152.96 for January to March, 2018, which is 69.5 per cent of the total target to date. This further indicates that there is an increase of N393,395,141,988.50, representing an overall increase of 51 per cent in 2018, when compared with the collection performance for the corresponding period in 2017.”
The breakdown of the revenue collection shows that Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) collection rose by 91 per cent from N338.29bn in the first quarter of 2017 to N644.76bn in the first three months of this year; while Company Income Tax (CIT) rose by 30 per cent from N155.57bn to N202.16bn.
An aggregate of N269.09bn was collected as Value Added Tax (VAT) in the first quarter of 2018, compared to N221.38bn in the first quarter of last year, representing a 22 per cent difference. Stamp Duty collection jumped by N1.43bn from N3.08bn to N4.45bn, while Capital Gains Tax (CGT) recorded a 179 per cent rise from N110.94bn in the first quarter of 2017 to N309.17bn in the first quarter of 2018.
However, the education tax collections fell by N8.06bn in the first three months of this year to N25.87bn from N33.93bn in the first quarter of 2017. Similarly, the National Information Technology Development Fund (NITDF) levy plunged by nine per cent, as only N163.6m was generated in the first three months of 2018 compared with N179.17m realised in the first quarter of 2017. Similarly affected was the consolidated revenue, which dipped by N931.37m from the N25.7bn recorded in the first quarter of last year to N24.77bn in the first quarter of this year.
The FIRS Chairman, in the letter dated April 9, informed the Finance Minister that the FIRS has been implementing various strategies to improve revenue generation and develop new collection-boosting initiatives. He expressed optimism that the strategies and initiatives will yield fruit before the end of this year.
According to Fowler, the FIRS collected a total of N4.03tn in the 2017 fiscal period, representing 82.38 per cent of the government’s target of N4.89tn for the year.
The N4.03tn revenue was N720bn more than the 2016 total collection figure of N3.3tn.
An analysis of the revenue collection performance indicated that taxes from non-oil sources accounted for 63 per cent, while oil tax accounted for 37 per cent of the total.
Stamp Duty recorded the highest increase in performance with 94 per cent during the 2017 fiscal period.