The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has said it collected about N1,12 trillion as revenue during the first quarter of the year. The figure represents a 10.4 per cent increase compared to about N1.05 trillion that was collected within the same period last year.
The tax authority described the feat as encouraging since the global economic climate has been quite turbulent this year, worsened by a sharp fall in global crude oil prices as a result of COVID-19.
FIRS recorded a 568 per cent increase in Capital Gains Tax, from N96.41million in Q1 2019 to about N643.94 million in the first quarter of 2020 , which gave it the biggest lift, as a direct result of blockage of leaks in that revenue flow by the wide-ranging reforms launched at the FIRS by its newly appointed Executive Chairman, Mr. Muhammad Nami.
Similarly, the Service recorded a 522 per cent increase in collection from the NITDEF to bag N690,532,855.85 in the first quarter, compared to N111,037,797.16 the same period last year.
Since taking the mantle of leadership at the FIRS, Nami has instituted a regime of policy reforms anchored on deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to block tax leaks and motivated members of staff at the FIRS by restoring a number of their statutory roles hitherto outsourced to private consultants back to the staff. Also in the period under review, Gas Income Tax increased by 286 per cent in Q1 2020, which amounted to about N11.5billion compared to N2.98 billion raked in during the same period in 2019.
Similarly, Company Income Tax (CIT) collected jumped by 135 per cent to more than N95.73 billion from the corresponding figure of N40.7 billion recorded same time last year.
Stamp Duty collection was N4,602,037,497.81, a 36 per cent increase to the Q1 2019 figure of N3,386,648,663.85
In the education sector, the FIRS recorded an 81 per cent increase in its collection of Education Tax, N13,102,045,604.74 in Q1 2020 compared to N7,229,644,397.68 in Q1 2019. Both NCS and Non-Import VAT also increased by 11 per cent in Q1 2020 to N63,296,684,819.79 and N261,245,617,218.98 respectively from the Q1 2019 figures of N57,008,866,617.53 and N236,030,481,054.83 in that order.
However, Petroleum Income Tax, Withholding Tax and Personal Income Tax all took a dip in the period under review, a development tax analysts attributed to fluctuations in the price of crude oil in the international market as well as the interregnum witnessed between passing the 2019 Finance Act into law and its coming to effect on February 1, 2020.
