The National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance on Wednesday commended the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for surpassing its target last year.
The FIRS got a N19.4 trillion revenue target in 2024 but succeeded in generating N21.6 trillion.
Impressed by the performance, the panel proposed an N25 trillion tax collection or revenue generation target for the FIRS in the 2025 appropriation bill.
The Deputy Chairman of, the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Hon Saidu Musa Abdullahi, described the performance by the FIRS as unprecedented.
He said, “The feat attained by FIRS on revenue collection or generation in 2024 was unprecedented and a very wonderful one, worthy of commendation.
“That you surpassed the target set for the agency in the 2024 Appropriation Act, from N19.4 trillion to N21.6 trillion is very cheering and encouraging.”
He, however, urged the FIRS boss to understudy the template being used in South Africa which according to him, generates revenue from tax collections far above that of Nigeria.
He said the South Africans achieved that despite having a smaller population of about 45 to 54 million people when compared to Nigeria’s population of 200 million.
“We shall give you total support on your tax reform, but you need to bring in a greater number of taxable citizens into the net from the informal sector,” he said.
However, the Chairman of the joint committee, Senator Sani Musa, told the FIRS boss that the N25 trillion projected for the agency in 2025 was what he should work with and possibly surpass as it did in 2024.
Musa said, “FIRS should work with the N25trn projected revenue set for it in 2025.
It is achievable and even surpass-able.”
In a related development, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, (NNPCL), Mr. Mele Kyari has said the national oil company was the agency in Nigeria that publishes 100 percent of its account yearly.
Kyari stated this on Wednesday, during a presentation of the revenue generation performance of NNPCL in 2024 and projection for 2025 to the National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance.
He said the company remitted N10 trillion to the federation account as of September 2024.
He added that NNPCL remains the highest tax payer in the country and, the highest payer of royalty and dividends.
He, however, said the company wants a forensic audit to be conducted on money spent by it for the stabilization of the price of petrol from January to September 2024 and the uninterrupted supply of the product.
He said, “Until 1st October 2024, NNPCL as mandated by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), acted as the supply of last resort on fuel supply which requires a forensic audit to know how much NNPCL is being owed or owing any agency.
“Our transactional account is very transparent which is published every year, making the NNPCL the only company in Nigeria noted for that and also the highest taxpayer in the country as well as the highest payer of royalty and dividends to shareholders as a commercial national oil companies,” he said.
The NNPCL Group Chief Executive, however, told the joint committee that revenue projection for 2025, will be made after the meeting of the board of directors of the company in two weeks.
He said the parameters for the 2025 budget proposal were realistic and realisable.
In his encounter with the joint committee on Finance the Managing Director of Nigeria Port Authority (NPA), Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho, said the NPA remitted N753 billion into the consolidated revenue fund and projected N997 billion for the 2025 fiscal year.
The Committee, however, jerked up the projected revenue for 2025 from N997 billion to N1.75 trillion.
The increased revenue projection according to the joint committee chairmen, was done for the maximisation of the 56 revenue sources which NPA possessed.
Meanwhile, the joint National Assembly Committee on Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs on Wednesday summoned the Minister of Finance, Mr. Wale Edun; Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu and Accountant General of the Federation, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Madein.
Edun, Bagudu, and Madein are expected to appear before the panel over the poor funding of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) last year.
