Outstanding Tunde Fowler targets N8tn at FIRS

The Federal Inland Revenue Service may be the solution to the head ache that the Nigerian economy faces this year as it is targeting a volume that can offset the deficit that stared the national budget in the face this year.
The over eight trillion naira budget is threatened by recurrent and debt-servicing burden totalling about six trillion naira.
But promising news emanated from the FIRS on Monday when its Executive Chairman, Tunde Fowler, said it was targeting eight trillion naira in 2019.
Fowler, now regarded as a reliable revenue driver, spoke in Lagos at the opening of the 2019 FIRS Management and Stakeholders Retreat tagged: “Parliamentary support for effective taxation of the digital economy”.
According to Fowler, the Service generated N5.320 trillion for the government last year, which he described as the highest ever.
Prior to 2018, the highest revenue figure ever attained by the FIRS was N5.07 trillion, which it generated in 2012. He described the N5.320 trillion generated by the FIRS as remarkable, given that it was achieved at a period when oil prices averaged $70 per barrel compared to the period between 2010 and 2013 when oil price was at an average of $100 to $120 per barrel.
The non-oil component of the N5.320 trillion was N2.467 trillion (53.62 per cent), while oil contributed N2.852 trillion (46.38 per cent). The FIRS collected N212, 792 billion exclusively from audit, a figure that arose from 2,278 cases, and with a huge reduction in audit circle.
Fowler said, “While we have been steadily increasing revenue collection over the years, our cost of collection has actually been going down. In 2016, we collected N3, 307 trillion; in 2017, we collected N4, 027 trillion and in 2018, we collected N5, 320 trillion.
“Meanwhile, the cost of collection as a percentage of actual taxes collected has been reducing. In 2016, it was 2.6 per cent. In 2017, it was 2.49 per cent, while in 2018 it was 2.14 per cent.”
According to a report in ‘The Nation, Fowler added that the Service has been working hard to ensure an increase in the amount of non-oil revenue it collects. Non-oil collection, he disclosed, contributed 64.99 per cent in 2016, 62.25 per cent in 2017 and 53.62 per cent last year.
This, he stated, was indicative of the government’s increasing focus on non-oil revenue sources and diversification of the country’s economy.
He attributed the steady rise in the collection figures to a series of initiatives adopted and implemented by the Service to enhance tax administration and ease tax payment.
Among these is the deployment of ICT initiatives, which enable taxpayers to pay taxes from anywhere in the world and at any time.
The FIRS boss said: “With the e-payment channel, one can pay taxes with the click of a button and one can also download their receipts.
“Other e-Services are the e-Registration, e-Filing, e-Stamp Duty and e-Tax Clearance Certificate. Taxpayers can now also choose the tax office where they would like to conduct their tax transactions.”