Cost of living still high as Nigerians pay N5.5 trillion tax revenue to FIRS in 6 months

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) collected a total tax revenue of N5.5 trillion for six-month period from January to June 2023. Legit.ng earlier reported that FIRS set a new record after collecting over N10 trillion in revenue in 2022.

It was the first time the revenue agency crossed the N10 trillion mark in tax revenue collection.

The agency's realisation of this feat is coming despite the fact that Nigerians have been plagued by several economic hardships in the course of the six months including naira scarcity, inflation, fuel subsidy removal and high petrol prices.

According to a statement released by the agency on Thursday, the new record is the biggest tax income collection the Service has ever seen in the first half of a fiscal year, Premium Times reported.

The statement notes that on Thursday, July 20, at the National Economic Council's meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Muhammad Nami, Executive Chairman of the FIRS, disclosed this information when presenting the projected tax income for the years 2023–2024.

In contrast to a mid-year objective of N5.3 trillion, the presentation, which included the FIRS' 2023 Half-Year Collection Report, showed that the FIRS exceeded its target for the first half of the year by more than 100%.

Breakdown of FIRS revenue

The report states that non-oil tax collection was N3.76 trillion, compared to a target of N2.98 trillion, and that tax revenue from the oil industry was N2.03 trillion from January to June 2023, as opposed to a target of N2.3 trillion.

Nami also mentioned in his presentation that in June 2023, the Service received N1.65 trillion in tax receipts overall. This amount is the Service's largest single-month tax revenue collection.

He praised the remarkable accomplishment and described it as a good head start amid persistent headwinds, attributing the success to improved voluntary tax compliance made possible by the automation of FIRS' tax administrative procedures.

He said: 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.

The FIRS Executive Chairman assured the nation that there are goods times ahead in terms of tax revenue collection with improvement in tax administration process and impact of government policies when discussing the prospects for the second half of the year.