The Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler, Thursday disclosed that the federal government realised N3.5 trillion from various taxes in the first eight months of 2018, a N1 trillion higher, compared with the N2.5 trillion generated by the country same period in 2017.
Fowler disclosed this just as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that the total value of Nigeria’s merchandise trade dropped to N6.56 trillion in the second quarter of the year (Q2 2018), representing a contraction by 8.89 per cent, compared with the N7.21 trillion recorded in the preceding quarter.
The FIRS boss while speaking at a stakeholders’ forum in Lagos, stressed that oil revenue was unsustainable, just as he reiterated the need to focus on ways to ramp up the country’s non-oil revenue.
“If you look at 2018 revenue till date, between January and August, we have done N3.5 trillion, which was N1 trillion higher than the amount realised over same period in 2017.
“You can clearly see that even at current prices, the oil revenue tax cannot fund our nation. The only way to have a high level of tax compliance is to focus on the non-oil.
“A component of the non-oil happens to be Value Added Tax (VAT) and we have found that a number of business collect VAT and don’t remit it,” Fowler said.
He also said the FIRS had commenced the audit of taxpayers across the country to ensure increased tax revenue collection, improved service delivery to taxpayers and enhanced voluntary compliance, while calling on stakeholders to support efforts to reposition tax administration system in the country.
“I also want to announce that we now have a consolidated database of all taxpayers in Nigeria under the Joint Tax Board (JTB).
“We just concluded it and before the end of September, it will be made available to all state internal revenue services and other government agencies like Immigration and Customs. It will be available for tax administration,” he added.
The FIRS boss said all tax laws that were not in the interest of the taxpayers are already undergoing a process of review and that taxpayers and stakeholders must support tax authorities in the interest of the nation’s development.
“The greatest challenge for any tax administration is achieving and maintaining a high degree of self-assessment and voluntary compliance by taxpayers.
“Studies however show that the extent to which an economy is able to grow sustainably and develop depends to a large extent on its ability to generate tax revenue to finance its expenditure and the efficiency of its tax system,” he said.
At the event, some of the stakeholders raised concerns regarding the number of taxes and levies being collected and levied by different government agencies which were mostly not remitted completely.
The forum had in attendance, representatives from Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs), labour unions, tax consultants, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and other private sector operators.