FIRS collects N1.05trn in first quarter

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said it collected N1.05 trillion revenue in the first quarter of 2014. It said the amount exceeded its target for the period by N50.9 billion or 5.06 per cent. This is contained in the Quarterly Revenue Report of the service, which was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday. According to the report, the revenue was derived from petroleum profit tax, non-oil taxes, including income tax, gas income, capital gain tax, stamp duty and Value Added Tax (VAT). It showed that N638.1 billion was collected from petroleum profit tax as against the target of N447.4 billion while N418.3 billion was collected from non-oil taxes as against its N558 billion target during the period. It indicated that petroleum profit tax contributed 60.4 per cent of the revenue while 39.6 per cent came from non-oil taxes. A breakdown of the total collection showed that company income tax contributed N174.3 billion, N2.4 billion from gas income, N783.8 million from capital gain tax and N2.8 billion from stamp duty. The VAT, comprising Nigeria Customs Service Import VAT and Non-import VAT, according to the period, contributed N212.4 billion or 20.1 per cent of the total non-oil taxes collection during the period. Other non-oil taxes collected were Education Tax, N12.6 billion; N12.9 billion from Consolidated Account and N144 million from National Information Technology Development Fund (NITDEF) levy. In the monthly collection during the period, the report showed that N346.5 billion was collected in January, N401.4 billion in February and N 308.5 billion in March. A breakdown of the monthly collection showed that the service collected N191 billion from petroleum tax and N155.4 billion from non-oil taxes, respectively, in January, and N268.2 billion and N133.2 billion from both sources in February. In March, the report further showed, N178.8 billion came from petroleum tax while N129.7 billion was collected from non-oil taxes. (NAN)