FIRS Rakes N1.16Trn Collection In Q1 2020
AMINA HUSSAINI, Abuja
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), has recorded N1,115,491,053,374.68 collections in the first quarter of 2020 representing a 10.4 percent increase over the amount collected in the same period in 2019.
The increase is significant considering the turbulence that characterised the global economic system, especially the sharp fall in the price of Nigeria’s crude oil which is the country’s major export and top earner .
The Service collected N1,046,889,787,060.27 in the first quarter of 2019.
A massive 568 percent increase in Capital Gains Tax from N96,408,740.90 in Q1 2019 to N643,935,849.06 in Q1 2020 gave the Service’s revenue its biggest lift,. This is a result of blockage of leaks owing to the wide-ranging reforms by the new Chairman, Muhammad Nami who assumed office December 2019.
Similarly, the Service recorded a 522 percent increase in collection from the NITDEF to bag N691,206,855.85 in Q12020, compared to N111,037,797.16 in Q1 2019
Nami on the assumption of office instituted a regime of policy reforms anchored on the deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to block tax leaks and motivated members of staff at the FIRS by restoring a number of their statutory roles hitherto outsourced to private consultants back to the staff.
This and others manifested in the report of the period under review which also saw Gas Income Tax increasing to N11,491,627,575.89 and representing 286 percent in Q1 2020 from N2,977,345,332.31 raked in Q12020
Similarly, Company Income Tax (CIT) collected in Q1 2020 jumped 135 percent to N95,733,194,644.91 from the corresponding figure of N40,696,980,658.52 recorded in Q1 2019. Stamp Duty collection in Q12020 is N4,750,893,578.48, a 40 percent increase to the Q12019 figure of N3,386,648,663.85
In the education sector, the FIRS recorded an 82 percent increase in its collection of Education Tax, N13,123,624,697.40 in Q12020 compared to N7,229,644,397.68 in Q12019.
Both NCS and Non-Import VAT also increased by 12.4 percent in Q12020 N63,296,684,819.79 and N266,264,753,625.13 respectively from the Q12019 figures of N57,008,866,617.53 and N236,030,481,054.83 in that order.
However, Petroleum Income Tax, Withholding Tax and Personal Income Tax all took a dip in the period under review, a development tax analysts attributed to fluctuations in the price of crude oil in the international market as well as the interregnum witnessed between passing the 2019 Finance Act into law and its coming to effect on February 1, 2020.
Moving forward and as on-going reforms and deployment of more ICT platforms at the FIRS take root in Q22020, the Service expects a brighter outlook in revenue collections.
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