The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said it has generated N2.7trn revenue from oil and non-oil sources as at September 2016 which represents 81 percent of the third quarter cumulative target of 3.12tr in the 2016 budget.

The Executive Chairman of the FIRS, Mr. Babatunde Fowler, disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Daily Trust yesterday in Abuja.

Fowler said the agency recorded more increase in tax collection from the non-oil revenue sector, with the largest chunk coming from the telecommunications and multinational companies.

“We have seen an increase in non-oil revenue. In terms of percentages, non-oil contribution, out of the total revenue target, is about 70 percent. In Naira terms, as of September we had achieved about 81 per cent of our contributions to this year’s budget. The total amount collected was about N2.7trillion, which is 81 percent of the third quarter cumulative budget,” he said.

He said the FIRS had been able to achieve this by expanding the tax net and compelling a number of companies that have the financial capacity but not interested in paying tax, to pay tax.

“A few of the companies that didn’t have the capacity to pay their accruing taxes, we gave repayment plans.

[Our plans] have not really affected their businesses as an ongoing concern. It wasn’t a situation whereby we shut down companies and they laid off staff. They are still operating their businesses so that they can still pay their taxes,” he said.

Fowler announced that the FIRS had granted tax amnesty stretching back to three years (2013-2015) to all tax payers in default, provided that such defaulting tax payers came forward to declare their indebtedness and present payment plans on the outstanding principal tax liability.

“After the amnesty is over on the November 24, 2016, we will start to charge the chairmen, Chief Executive Officers, financial controllers, etc of these organizations to court in their personal capacity, especially when it comes to the area of Value Added Tax (VAT). When a consumer pays VAT, instead of the organisations to send the money to government they decide to keep them. That is outright theft,” he said.

On the controversial communications tax bill which continues generate a debate, he said; “If you look at it the world over a lot of countries have similar taxes. It is a tax that you incur based on your consumption. If you don’t have the wealth to talk for one hour then you won’t be taxed on that amount, but if you have the ability to have extensive discussions, then that also assumes that you have the ability to pay the additional tax,” he explained.

The FIRS boss said though Nigeria has the lowest VAT level in Africa and one of the lowest in the world. However, government is mindful of the present state of the economy in the country so it would not increase VAT from what it is at the moment.

“If you increase the VAT level in the county to 10% right now, it will mean that those who are currently in the tax net, those who have been remitting VAT collected, will be unduly treated. My feeling is that we should get a least a 90% level of compliance of everybody paying and remitting VAT.”

He listed innovation brought into the tax system by the FIRS to include setting up offices closer to tax payers for their convenience and improved tax administration through the use of technology.

lalasticlala

freeze001:
With all of these, exactly why do we need to borrow more external funds? Is there a breakdown somewhere of the collation, application and disbursement of our IGR? Have all available human and natural resources been exploited? Is it out of place to implement strict regional and fiscal restructuring to further open up more fronts of simultaneous development in line with the pace and dictates of the people?

VampireeM:
With all these monies we have been reading online daily, PMB still wants to borrow billions of dollars?? Abi all these revenues are generated on paper alone and not reality...

PMB and his team are terrible managers and incompetent. No capital project commissioned this year o and its almost over..

obailala:


This is just a fraction of the revenue anticipated in the 2016 budget; of which most of these even goes to paying salaries.

obailala:


This is just a fraction of the revenue anticipated in the 2016 budget; of which most of these even goes to paying salaries.

obailala:


This is just a fraction of the revenue anticipated in the 2016 budget; of which most of these even goes to paying salaries.

With all of these, exactly why do we need to borrow more external funds? Is there a breakdown somewhere of the collation, application and disbursement of our IGR? Have all available human and natural resources been exploited? Is it out of place to implement strict regional and fiscal restructuring to further open up more fronts of simultaneous development in line with the pace and dictates of the people?

freeze001:


These were my questions :



Do u have access to the information needed to answer my questions? Have u analysed them and weighed them along income, expenditure and savings? If yes, can we see them too? If no, then stop being a zombie and throwing out this distasteful, one-size-fits-all answer u just regurgitated up there to justify nonsense.

That is why they are being asked to provide details of what the hell they need that much money for and whether it is absolutely impossible to open up internal avenues of revenue generation.

Talking of salaries, how much is the annual wage bill of the FG? Adeosun put it at about #145 billion per month so that's not up to 2 trillion a year. http://thenationonlineng.net/finance-ministry-uncovers-33000-ghost-workers/
Mind that the money that is the subject of this thread is just from one agency-FIRS. What about revenue from other agencies like the NPA, NNPC, FRSC, Customs and loads of others?

richidinho:


Did Buhari govt increase the wage bill? If No

Where did the extra money go to

Also the one realized from Merging of ministries

asuustrike2009:

Hmmm

freeze001:


These were my questions :



Do u have access to the information needed to answer my questions? Have u analysed them and weighed them along income, expenditure and savings? If yes, can we see them too? If no, then stop being a zombie and throwing out this distasteful, one-size-fits-all answer u just regurgitated up there to justify nonsense.

That is why they are being asked to provide details of what the hell they need that much money for and whether it is absolutely impossible to open up internal avenues of revenue generation.

Talking of salaries, how much is the annual wage bill of the FG? Adeosun put it at about #145 billion per month so that's not up to 2 trillion a year. http://thenationonlineng.net/finance-ministry-uncovers-33000-ghost-workers/
Mind that the money that is the subject of this thread is just from one agency-FIRS. What about revenue from other agencies like the NPA, NNPC, FRSC, Customs and loads of others?

TimeManager:
you need forgiveness.
Beg the ring!

TimeManager:
Do you realise that the FG doesn't have these agencies in her pockets?. Have you ever heard of words like "federation Account"?. Do you know monies accrued are shared on a monthly basis?. The best way to think is to stop wailing.

[s]On the controversial communications tax bill which continues generate a debate, he said; “If you look at it the world over a lot of countries have similar taxes. It is a tax that you incur based on your consumption. If you don’t have the wealth to talk for one hour then you won’t be taxed on that amount, but if you have the ability to have extensive discussions, then that also assumes that you have the ability to pay the additional tax,” he explained[/s].

VampireeM:
With all these monies we have been reading online daily, PMB still wants to borrow billions of dollars?? Abi all these revenues are generated on paper alone and not reality...
PMB and his team are terrible managers and incompetent. No capital project commissioned this year o and its almost over..

989900D:


Absolute crap. Nonsense.

Good work on the increased revenue though, especially the non-oil.

obailala:


This is just a fraction of the revenue anticipated in the 2016 budget; of which most of these even goes to paying salaries.

freeze001:


Read ur post again and judge for yourself whether u make any lick of sense.

VampireeM:
With all these monies we have been reading online daily, PMB still wants to borrow billions of dollars?? Abi all these revenues are generated on paper alone and not reality...

PMB and his team are terrible managers and incompetent. No capital project commissioned this year o and its almost over..

sapiosexual1:

Add this to the revenues from Customs, Oil exports, recovered funds and the supposed monnies saved by TSA and you are the one we should be asking questions.
Remember we are supposed to be operating a zero budget, it's obvious the government officials don't understand fully what that means. They just saw a fancy economics term and bandied it about to delude their zombies

TimeManager:
you talk as though the monies solely belongs to the FG, where do you put the states?. Moreover, a zero based budget is not immune to borrowing. By the way, zero budgeting kicks off by next year. You don't always have to make it this easy to recognise a wailer.
Kiss the truth!

sapiosexual1:

Just like your patrons and tin gods, you guys always shift the goal post midway into the game. Which campaign promise and post election policy hasn't ur masters shifted or upturned?
It's November already, few weeks to the end of the legislative year, MTF hasn't even been approved let alone budget presentation .Matter of factly, a structureless MTF was pushed to the NASS so we don't even know the financial framework and if it captures zero based budgeting.
The handwriting is on the wall about the failure of next year's budget. Next you would tell us is that zero budgeting was not actually supposed to be. It isn't difficult to be a zombie, is it? All you need to do is fail to read between the lines and act like a dunce whenever matters you self-service on are being discussed.

TimeManager:
Read your own comments again & tell me who has a less than a lick. You listed revenue-generating agencies as sufficient means to fund FG's activities. However, my point being that those agencies do not purely serve the FG rather the federation, which simply means the FG finds other ways to fund her budget, hence borrowing being one of such.

freeze001:


Like I said, you should have read and properly understood my entire post before jumping in. Yes, I listed some revenue generating but the entire post was designed to make it clear that there's way more internal alternatives to be exploited which haven't been harnessed even before borrowing which should be a last resort especially considering where we're at right now.

There's more than just revenue generating agencies in my post, I'd have advised u go try reading through again but it's obviously a lost cause cos you're stuck on some zombie diet. Other posters clearly comprehend so u don't really count.

richidinho:


Did Buhari govt increase the wage bill? If No

Where did the extra money go to

Also the one realized from Merging of ministries