The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has announced that it achieved a 100% revenue target for 2021 despite issues brought up by the pandemic.
Muhammad Nami, the Executive Chairman of the FIRS, made this known while giving the “FIRS 2021 performance update,” on Thursday, according to NAN.
He stated that FIRS received a revenue of N6.405 trillion from a target of N6.401 trillion.
Nami said, “The FIRS, in the year 2021 collected a total of N6.405 trillion in both oil (N2.008 trillion) and non-oil (N4.396 trillion) revenues as against a target of N6.401 trillion.
“Companies Income Tax amounted to N1.896 trillion; Petroleum Profits Tax amounted to N2 trillion; Value Added Tax amounted to N2.07 trillion; Electronic Money Transfer Levy amounted to N114 billion; Earmarked Taxes amounted to N208.8 billion; among others.”
He added that the Non-oil sector contributed 68.64 per cent of the total collection in the year, while the oil sector’s contribution was 31.36 per cent of the total collection.
“The Service issued certificates for the sum of N147.8 billion tax credit to private investors and NNPC for road infrastructure, under the Road Infrastructure Development Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme created by Executive Order No. 007 of 2019.”
He added that in line with tax laws, the 2021 income tax announcement was due to business activities in 2020, adding that despite Nigeria entering a recession, however, the implementation of new technology
The deployment of a new automated tax administration system, the “TaxPro Max” in June 2021 was a game-changer that enabled taxpayers to experience ease with registration, reporting, payment and issuance of Tax Clearance Certificates.
He stated it has made service delivery have greater efficiency in the deployment of resources, thereby, leading to improved revenue collection.
“This was in spite of the strong opposition to FIRS statutory mandates by certain interests, which posed a major setback in the full implementation of its reforms,” Nami said.