FG to Target 80% Revenue from Non-oil Sector in Three Years

James Emejo

The Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Tunde Fowler, has stated that 80 per cent of Nigeria’s revenue would come from the non-oil sector of the economy in the next three years.

Fowler, who spoke today at the Nigeria-Canada Investment Summit in Abuja, noted that the contribution of the non-oil sector to the Nigerian economy rose from 54 per cent in December 2018 to 60 per cent by November 2019.

He also noted that the continuous drop in the oil prices is a sign that attention should be focused on the non-oil sector of the economy.

“We are moving from oil dependent to non-oil dependent economy. We believe that in the next three years, the non-oil sector is going to contribute at least 80 per cent of the total revenue. You may ask where is that going to come from. It is going to come from Agriculture,” he said.

He said the strategies that FIRS is adopting to realise improved revenue collection are: “auto VAT Collection: there is automation of VAT collection in key sectors which facilitates reduction in compliance cost in the long term; there is system to system integration between banks and FIRS. VAT collection in the banking sector went live in January 2017. We have collected N25.6 billion from January to October 2019.

“Moreover, VAT collection in the Cable TV sector went live in December 2018 and generated N5.1billion so far from January to October 18, 2019.”

He explained that “Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS) project is a suite of programs that enables the automation of FIRS tax processes. “As part of the service’s objectives to bring high-level efficiency to tax revenue collection and provide first class services to taxpayers, ITAS project introduced SIGTAS, a solution that covers all aspects of tax administration in one integrated system.