FIRS Generated N778.19bn in First Qtr of 2017

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has said it generated N778.19 billion revenue in the first quarter of 2017.

This is according to a progress report by the FIRS sent to the Federal Ministry of Finance on Tuesday in Abuja.

The report, which showed the revenue performance for the first quarter of 2017, gave a breakdown of money collected.

According to the report, the FIRS collected N338.3 billion as Petroleum Profit Tax between January and March, as against the N176.7 billion collected in the period under review in 2016.

Similarly, Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue increased from N198.7 billion in first quarter of 2016, to N221.37 billion in first quarter of 2017.

The report, according to Freedomonline .com, showed that the biggest improvement was from education tax collection, which the FIRS surpassed in 2016 by 311.7 per cent.

It said in first quarter of 2017, N33.9 billion was generated as Education tax revenue as against the N8.24 billion generated in the same period of 2016.

Also, the service said it achieved 284.3 per cent improvement in Stamp Duty collections, as it generated N3 billion in first quarter of 2017, as against the N785 million generated in 2016.

The report also showed that consolidated tax revenue for the first quarter of the year grew by 123 per cent, from N11.5 billion in 2016 to N25.7 billion in the same period of 2017.

The service also recorded success in boosting its collection of National Information Technology Development Fund (NITDEF) levy, which went up from N129 million in 2016 to N179.2 million in 2017.

The report, however, showed that the FIRS did not record any improvement in Company Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax collections.