A total of N1.7 trillion has been announced as the tax revenue generated by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in the first quarter of 2018.
This figure was made known by the tax service chairman, Tunde Fowler, in a letter to the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun tagged ‘Brief on revenue projections performance for the period January to March 2018.’
The total sum, Fowler explained, was generated from the collection of different tax types.
A better start compared to 2017
The sum recorded by the tax agency in the Q1 of 2018 represents a significant leap over the N778.19bn recorded in the Q1 of 2017.
The amount generated in the Q1 of 2018 is N393.39bilion in excess of what was generated in the Q1 of 2017.
This further indicates that there is an overall increase of 51 percent in 2018 when compared with the collection performance for the corresponding period in 2017.
“The analysis shows that we have so far collected the sum of N1,171,588,583,152.96 for January to March 2018, which is 69.5 percent of the total target to date. This further indicates that there is an increase of N393,395,141,988.50, representing an overall increase of 51 percent in 2018 when compared with the collection performance for the corresponding period in 2017,” Fowler announced.
Breakdown of tax revenue generated
The breakdown of the revenue collection shows that Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) collection rose by 91 percent from N338.29 billion in the first quarter of 2017 to N644.76 billion in the first three months of 2018.
For Company Income Tax (CIT), it was commendable leap by 30 percent from N155.57 billion to N202.16 billion.
In the same vein, an aggregate of N269.09 billion was collected as Value Added Tax (VAT) in the Q1 of 2018, compared to N221.38 billion in the Q1 of 2017. This clearly represents a 22 percent difference.
Stamp Duty collection jumped by N1.43 billion from N3.08 billion to N4.45 billion, while Capital Gains Tax (CGT) recorded a 179 percent rise from N110.94 billion in the Q1 of 2017 to N309.17 billion in the Q1 of 2018.
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While basking in the commendable leap of the VAT, CIT, CGT and Stamp Duty, the education tax collections fell by N8.06 billion in the first three months of 2018 to a sad N25.87 billion from N33.93 billion in the first quarter of 2017.
Sadly again, the National Information Technology Development Fund (NITDF) levy plunged by nine percent, as only N163.6 million was generated in the first three months of 2018 compared with N179.17 million realized in the first quarter of 2017.
Similarly affected was the consolidated revenue, which dipped by N931.37 million from the N25.7 billion recorded in the first quarter of last year to N24.77 billion in the first quarter of this year.
Tax boss expresses optimism ahead of Q4
The FIRS Chairman expressed optimism in generating more revenue as expected of the tax agency.
Fowler noted that the FIRS has been implementing various strategies to improve revenue generation and develop new collection-boosting initiatives.
He further said that the strategies and initiatives will yield fruit before the end of this year.
According to Fowler, the FIRS collected a total of N4.03 trillion in the 2017 fiscal period, representing 82.38 percent of the government’s target of N4.89 trillion for the year.
The N4.03 trillion revenue was N720 billion more than the 2016 total collection figure of N3.3 trillion.
An analysis of the revenue collection performance indicated that taxes from non-oil sources accounted for 63 percent, while oil tax accounted for 37 percent of the total.
Stamp Duty recorded the highest increase in performance with 94 percent during the 2017 fiscal period.