FIRS collects N1.8tn tax revenue in six months

The Acting Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr. Sunday Odugbesan, said on Thursday that the agency raised about N1.842tn from taxes into the Federation Account in the first half of this year.

Ogungbesan, however, lamented that the figure was still a far cry from what could have accrued to the country’s coffers, but for the numerous social, political and economic challenges confronting the nation.

The FIRS boss stated this while briefing the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on the activities of his agency.

He noted that the agency raised N697bn from Petroleum Profit Tax; N778bn from Company Income Tax; and N376bn from Value Added Tax in the period under review.

He also explained that the agency was still expecting between N12bn and N15bn import VAT from the Nigeria Customs Service.

Ogungbesan noted that the annual target of the FIRS in the oil and gas sector was N1.4tn; while its expected monthly target was N123.74bn.

He said the trend of collection showed that N147bn and N150bn were collected from the sector in January and February, but that it went down to N93bn in March.

The FIRS boss lamented that the worst performance recorded from the oil sector in the last 15 years was experienced in April, when the agency realised N50bn as tax.

He, nevertheless, noted that the situation had started to improve as N118bn and N136bn were generated from the oil sector in May and June, respectively.

He attributed the collection of N50.67bn in the month of April to the fact three major oil companies did not forward any report to the FIRS, because they complained of high cost of production.

The FIRS boss said, “The last government was looking for means of financing the 2015 budget and so introduced a lot of new taxes, including a surcharge on air tickets for those flying business class on international routes, who will pay N15,000 as surcharge.

“We were supposed to start in the middle of July and we have written the NCAA already. We also look at those who own private jets, furniture, mansion and others.

“Regrettably, we have not been able to administer these because of some challenges. We raised assessment on 130 private jet owners. We raised about N100m on a particular company. I had met with them.

“There are some of them with platforms at airports but their records show that they have private jets. We want to meet with the new government to know the fate of the tax on luxury items. We have doubts that the expected revenue from those flying first class may be too small to finance part of the budget.

“If we had said every passenger leaving the shores of the country should pay, it will be a different issue. But the government said we should leave those flying economy.”

Saraki noted that the country’s over dependence on oil could no longer be a way forward, stressing the need to look at the area of taxes, which he said was more stable and reliable.

He cautioned the FIRS management on the implementation of the luxury tax especially as it concerned the private jet owners because the issue “is sensational.”