The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has announced a tax revenue collection of N5.5 trillion for the half-year period of January to June 2023.

This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by Mr Johannes Wojuola, Special Assistant on Media and Communication to the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Mr Muhammad Nami.

BRANDPOWER reports that it is the highest tax revenue collection recorded by FIRS in any first six months of a fiscal year.

Wojuola quoted Nami as saying this while presenting the 2023-2024 tax revenue outlook to the National Economic Council’s meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to him, the FIRS 2023 Half-Year Collection Report showed that the Service achieved over 100 per cent of its target for the first-half of the year when compared with a mid-year target of N5.3 trillion.

“Tax revenue collected from the oil sector from January to June 2023 stood at N2.03 trillion as against a target of N2.3 trillion, while non-oil tax collection stood at N3.76 trillion as against a target of N2.98 trillion,’’ Nami said.

The FIRS boss further said that the Service collected N1.65 trillion tax revenue in June 2023.

“This sum is the highest tax revenue collected by the Service in any single month,’’ he said.

Nami attributed the performance to improved voluntary tax compliance enabled by the automation of FIRS tax administrative processes.

“This is a good head start as we work toward meeting our target for the year.

“It was achieved in spite of stubborn headwinds such as the impact of the currency redesign and 2023 general elections on the economy in the first and second quarters of 2023.

“This half-year performance was achieved as a result of improved voluntary tax compliance by taxpayers and the continued improvement of automation of our tax administration processes including the updated VAT filing processes.

“This includes our dogged engagement with stakeholders in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy,” he said.

Commenting on the outlook for the remaining half of the year, the FIRS boss assured that the country should expect better days ahead in terms of tax revenue collection.

“We believe that the performance in the second half of the year would be better considering the continuing improvement to our tax administration processes and the positive impact of current government’s policies on the economy,” he said.

BRANDPOWER reports that FIRS achieved a total collection of N10.1 trillion in 2022 being the highest tax collection made in a single year.