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The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is to generate not less than N5.2 Billion from 10 million new taxpayers in 2017.
According to the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Babatunde Fowler, about 700,000 firms that have never paid taxes are to be brought into the tax net.
In an interview with Reuters, Fowler said:“We collected a little over N2.3 trillion, so far – from January to 31 August. It is almost at par with last year but take into consideration that the economy is going through a little slowdown.”
He explained that revenue from Value Added Tax (VAT) has increased by 25 per cent year-on-year and corporate income tax held steady over the same period but petroleum profit tax was expected to have halved, mainly due to low oil prices.
Fowler, who increased monthly tax revenues by 70 per cent in Lagos within four years in the nation’s commercial capital, said a new unit created early in the year has deployed inspectors, armed with laptops to update databases, registering businesses and individuals, who are then tracked to check whether they have paid taxes.
He said:“From our estimates, we expect that we have 60 million individuals who should pay some form or level of tax.”
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