By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said on Thursday that despite the global economic challenges occasioned by the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as the disruption of business activities in 2020 by nationwide protests, it achieved over a hundred percent of its collection target for the year 2021.
FIRS Executive Chairman, Muhammad Nami who stated this in the 2021 Performance Update of the Service he personally signed, said, “Notwithstanding the limitations faced in 2020/2021, the Service achieved over a hundred percent of its collection target”.
According to the report, “The FIRS, in the year 2021 collected a total of N6.405 trillion in both oil (N2.008 trillion) and non-oil (N4.396 trillion) revenues as against a target of N6.401 trillion. Companies Income Tax amounted to N1.896 trillion; Petroleum Profits Tax amounted to N2 trillion; Value Added Tax amounted to N2.07 trillion; Electronic Money Transfer Levy amounted to N114 billion; Earmarked Taxes amounted to N208.8 billion; among others.
“Non-oil sector contributed 68.64% of the total collection in the year, while oil sector’s contribution was 31.36% of total collection.
“The Service issued certificates for the sum of N147.8 billion tax credit to private investors and NNPC for road infrastructure under the Road Infrastructure Development Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme created by Executive Order No. 007 of 2019.”
The report explained that “in line with the law, 2021 income tax revenue is a function of the outcome of business activities in 2020.
“In that year, the country entered into a second economic recession within 5 years. The recession was occasioned by 5-months of lockdown caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. To compound the economic challenges of COVID-19 pandemic, business activities were disrupted by the End-SARS protests.”
It further stated that the deployment of technological tools was a game-changer for the Service.
“Upon the coming into office of the current management, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) began strategic administrative and operational reforms; and the implementation of new policies that would improve its capacity towards the fulfilment of its mandate.
“The deployment of a new automated tax administration system, the “TaxPro Max” in June 2021 was a game-changer. With the solution, taxpayers experienced ease of registration, reporting, payment and issuance of Tax Clearance Certificates while the Service experienced greater efficiency in the deployment of resources thereby leading to improved revenue collection.”
However, in a statement by Johannes Oluwatobi Wojuola, Special Assistant to the Executive Chairman (Media & Communication), the FIRS stated that “strong opposition to its statutory mandates by certain interests posed a major setback in the full implementation of its reforms”.
