For the six-month period from January to June 2023, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) forecast a total tax revenue collection of N5.5 trillion.
The Service has never seen tax revenue collections this high in the first half of a fiscal year.
This was said by Mr. Muhammad Nami, Executive Chairman of the FIRS, when he presented the National Economic Council with the tax revenue estimate for 2023–2024 on July 20, 2023, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The presentation, which included the FIRS’ 2023 Half-Year Collection Report, demonstrated that, as compared to a mid-year objective of N5.3 trillion, the FIRS exceeded its goal for the first half of the year by more than 100%.
The study states that, from January to June 2023, tax income from the oil industry was collected at N2.03 trillion, falling short of the aim of N2.3 trillion, while tax revenue from non-oil sources was collected at N3.76 trillion, exceeding the target of N2.98 trillion.
In his presentation, Mr. Nami also mentioned that in June 2023, the Service collected a total of N1.65 trillion in tax revenues. This amount is the Service’s biggest monthly tax income collection to date.
Mr. Muhammad Nami credited the strong performance, which he termed as “a good head start, despite stubborn headwinds,” to increased voluntary tax compliance made possible by the automation of FIRS’ tax administrative processes.
“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”, said Mr Nami.
“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.”, he concluded.
Commenting on the outlook for the remainder half of the year, the FIRS Executive Chairman gave assurances that the country should expect “better days ahead” in terms of tax revenue collection.
“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 positive impact of current government’s policies on the economy,” said the Executive Chairman.
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.