Tunde FowlerThe Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Tunde Fowler has revealed that Nigeria earned N3.74 trillion out of a budget of N4.57 trillion for the fiscal year ended December 2014. This represents an 8% drop from a year earlier.  This will be the first time Nigeria will fail to meet its tax collection target since we started tracking in 2000.

Further breakdown reveals that Nigeria earned from VAT a sum of N767.33bn against a revenue target of N1.28tn. Nigeria earned over N800b in VAT in 2014.

Another N1.28trillion was earned from PPT, out of a target of N1.48 trillion. This was a massive drop on about 50% compared to the N2.4 trillion collected in 2014. Nigeria earned N1.29trillion from corporate income tax out of a target o N1.51trillion. Corporate income tax was about N1.1trillion in 2014.

Mr Fowler expresses disappointment with the result.

The above performance is clearly unacceptable and is not a reflection of our capacity. I am particularly not pleased with the very poor VAT collection, which based on my previous  experience at the state level in the administration of tax similar to VAT, should be high yield and easy to collect.
“It is our expectation that you will not only meet, but surpass this 70 per cent threshold because if we meet only 70 per cent of our target, then government will be unable to fund the 2016 budget.”

He further revealed a target tax revenue of N4.9 trillion for 2016 projecting that VAT revenue will account for N2 trillion.

We have proposed a revenue target of N4.957trillion for 2016. This target is largely dependent on non oil collections and in particular, VAT will account for N2trillion while CIT is expected to account for N1.87trillion.”
“Between them, these two taxes are expected to provide almost 80 per cent of our collection in 2016. We therefore have our work cut out and there is no room for complacency.”

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