The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has announced that it raked in total tax revenue of N5.5 trillion for the half-year period of January to June 2023, representing the highest tax revenue collection ever recorded by the Service in any first six months of a fiscal year.
The Executive Chairman of the federal revenue agency, Mr. Muhammad Nami, gave these figures while presenting the Service’s ‘2023-2024 Tax Revenue Outlook’ report to the National Economic Council (NEC) at its meeting held on Thursday, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Nami’s presentation, which contained FIRS’ 2023 Half-Year Collection Report, reflected that the revenue service achieved over 100% 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.
During the presentation, the sFIRS boss told the NEC 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.
While describing the feat as “a good head start, despite stubborn headwinds,” Nami, attributed the performance to improved voluntary tax compliance enabled by the automation of FIRS’ tax administrative processes.
He 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”, the FIRS boss added.
On the outlook for the second half of the year, the FIRS Executive Chairman gave assurances that the country should expect “better days ahead” in terms of tax revenue collection.
Nami projected: “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 the positive impact of the current government’s policies on the economy”
It would be recalled that the Service 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.
