FIRS targets highest revenue of N5.3trn by year end

The Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Tunde Fowler, has said the service is at the verge of generating N5.3 trillion at the end of the year, even as the total sum of N5 trillion has been raked as at the second week of December 2018. The revenue agency boss said if the targeted N5.3trillion revenue is achieved, it will be the highest revenue ever generated by FIRS in history, because the highest in FIRS history was N5.07 trillion recorded in 2012. Speaking at the induction of new members of the Joint Tax Board (JTB) on Wednesday in Abuja, Mr Fowler said FIRS has been able to record significant achievements following maximum support from the Presidency, Ministry of Finance, the JTB and other taxation stakeholders. “This year, the FIRS, with the support of the Presidency, Ministry of Finance, the JTB, and other stakeholders, has been able to generate up to N5 trillion. We believe that we should be able to close at least at N5.3 trillion which should be the highest in the history of FIRS. And we believe that with that additional revenue, the state and federal governments would be able to provide more services and more development to the people of Nigeria”, he said. He, however, urged the new inductees to JTB to equip themselves with new ideas and embrace the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to be able to face the reality of revenue collection in the ever-changing society. “I see it as a privilege to be addressing this class of inductees today as history has chosen you at this critical point in time in our nation’s development to steer the ship of sustainable revenue generation. “While preparing for this occasion, I came across an observation by the American inventor and author Ray Kurzweil where he noted that the rate of scientific and technological change is exponential rather than linear. This observation presupposes that the better part of applied wisdom requires that in our journey of life we are capable of identifying the most apt moment to know at what point to adapt to the ever-tumultuous sea that modern existence represents. “It also indicates that we should be able to develop the ability to accept and embrace positive change, maybe because change is inevitable, but more significantly that often, change presents us with the rare breaks that we can exploit to advance individual and collective goals and objectives”, he said. The FIRS boss also stated that as global society continues to transform in structure and process, especially with new technologies and ways of doing things, the role that has been presented before tax administrators in an emerging economy such as Nigeria are quite enormous. He said rather than being overwhelmed by the rapid changes of the 21st century, taxmen should remain undaunted and see the opportunities that are possible to us as a people in general and as tax administrators in particular. “I believe that history has placed this responsibility on each and every one of us here today to be the critical success factors in our quest towards ensuring sustainable revenue generation for our various jurisdictions and for our country as well”, he added. Motolani Oseni