FIRS Generates N2.11tn Revenue In January To July 2017

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it has generated the sum of N2.11 trillion as revenue from January to July, 2017.

This is contained in a progress report of the agency for the period under review, showing the revenue performance and impact of the new tax regime.

A breakdown of the report shows that the FIRS collected N720.28bn as Petroleum Profit Tax, while the Value Added Tax revenue collected in the same period was N548.22bn.

The service had also collected the sum of N679.9bn as Company Income Tax and N91.4bn as Education Tax in the first seven months of the year.

The report also reveals that the consolidated tax revenue for the first seven month of the year was N62.3bn, which has already superseded the N59.8bn generated from the area in the entire 2016 financial year.

Also, the service recorded success in boosting its collection of the National Information Technology Development Fund levy, which went from N6.75bn in 2016 to N9.87bn in the first seven months of 2017.

A further analysis of the report shows that the FIRS generated more money from taxing the non-oil sector compared to the oil and gas sector.

Non-oil tax revenue contribution was at 65.9 percent, while oil and gas contribution to revenue so far was at 34 percent.

According to the report, the improvement recorded so far is due to the steps taken by the service to increase tax collection.