By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria’s tax administration body, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), says it is targeting a total of N8.505 trillion in revenue for the year 2020.
This revelation came from Mr Mohammed Nami, the new Executive Chairman of the body, during the opening ceremony of the FIRS Corporate Plan Retreat in Abuja on Friday.
According to Mr Nami, the set revenue target of N8.505 trillion was lower than the 2019 returns target of N8.802 trillion by almost N300 billion. Breaking down the expected revenue, he stated that N3.698 trillion would be realised from oil tax, while N4.8 trillion would be gotten from non-oil tax during the year.
The FIRS chief said this was feasible considering the service’s performance in the past, adding that one could look at 2020 target as ambitious but it was achievable.
He then assured stakeholders that with the ongoing reforms and business process re-engineering that were currently taking place in the service, the agency was committed to ensuring that there was proper accountability.
According to him, these reforms are aimed at improving both filing and payment compliance, re-activation of dormant taxpayers through aggressive intelligence gathering and information sharing and blocking of leakages.
“In 2019, the FIRS achieved total tax revenue collection of N5.263 trillion against target of N8.802 trillion which translated to about 60 per cent target achievement for the year.
“The performance was slightly lower than the 2018 collection of N5.32 trillion by N57 billion. Oil tax collection for the year was N2.111 trillion which was 49 percent achievement of its annual target of N4.301 trillion and accounted for 40 percent contribution to the total collection.
“On the other hand, non-oil taxes collection for the year was N3.152 trillion which was 70 per cent achievements of the annual target of N4.501 trillion and accounted for 60 per cent contribution to the total collection,” he explained.
On the retreat, the chairman noted that the event was a flagship in the service’s planning cycle and a platform where staff and management review the performance of the service in the immediate past year and map out goals and strategies for achieving set objectives for the current year.
“We are in FIRS to work as a team, to drive the programmes set by the Federal Government. We must ensure that we work as a team, as a family day in, day out so that the N8. 5 trillion is not only met but surpassed.” He said.
He reiterated the commitment of the service in working to realise President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision at taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years by collecting robust revenue to develop infrastructure.
Dipo Olowookere