FIRS generates N4.178trn revenue in 10 months – Chairman

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 The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it has generated N4.178 trillion revenue in the last 10 months.

The Executive Chairman of the service, Mr Muhammad Nami, disclosed this while presenting a report on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) at the 46th meeting of the Joint Tax Board (JTB) in Abuja on Friday.

Nami said what was realised within the period, represented 99 per cent performance of its 10 months target of N4.230 trillion.

He also said, as at third quarter of 2020, cumulative annual collections from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory was N974.197 billion.

According to him, this represents a drop of 1.39 per cent when compared with the collections from the same period in 2019 which was N988.024 billion.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has indeed had a profound effect on IGR, especially at the sub national level following the record breaking cumulative annual collections from the states and FCT of N1.334 trillion recorded in 2019.

“We remain unwavering in our desire towards ensuring that we take advantage of the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic and utilise technology and other ideas in the remaining part of the year to finish strong in our revenue drive.

“We are confident that with the support of all the critical stakeholders, the future of revenue generation and tax administration for our nation is bright,” Nami stated.

Meanwhile, the FIRS boss also disclosed that the service had planned to introduce states e-tax pay solution.

He said the solution was capable of carrying out auto calculation, deduction, remittances and unified receipting functions for relevant taxes accruing to three tiers of government.

He noted that FIRS was ready to bear the full burden of financing the implementation in view of the benefits it would yield to Nigerian tax environment.