FIRS collects N3.37 trillionin nine months'Faults Senate on bid tocreate FCT Revenue BoardRECENT reforms put in place by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in order to reposition the Nigerian tax system appear to have yielded dividends as the tax agency has collected N1.17 trillion in non-oil taxes between January and September this year.The figure is part of a total haul of N3.37 trillion collected within the period as tax revenue in the country, according to Director, Corporate Communications Department, FIRS, Emmanuel Obeta.This cheery news came just as Executive Chairman, FIRS, Mrs. Ifueko Omogui-Okaru has asked the National Assembly to thread with caution on the plan by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to set up a Revenue Board to collect taxes, which she argued the FIRS has the constitutional right to collect on behalf of the Federal Government.Okaru, instead, advised that the country should aim at drawing lessons from the current financial crises ravaging the Republic of Greece and other European Union (EU) countries, with a view to diversifying its earning base.She submitted that the tax agency' growth of the non-oil taxes was a testimony to its determination to make taxation the pivot of the nation's sustainable development.Meanwhile, Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has described the upgrade of Nigeria's economic outlook by Fitch Ratings as 'great news for the country and a strong foundation for the country to keep building the on-going economic reforms'.The globally respected rating agency revised the country's Outlook to Stable (BB-) from Negative at the weekend. Fitch also affirmed Nigeria's Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'BB-' and Long-term local currency IDR at 'BB'. The agency also affirmed the Short-term rating at 'B' and Country Ceiling at 'BB-'.Speaking through her Senior Special Assistant on Media, Paul Nwabikwu, Okonjo-Iweala also described the upgrade as 'concrete evidence that the President's economic transformation agenda is being appreciated.'She said: 'We have to keep working hard to realise the key priorities of the transformation agenda ' job creation and building key infrastructure. But this positive development gives us a strong foundation to build on. Fitch did this because of the medium term budget of fiscal consolidation proposed by the Ministry of Finance in line with the transformation agenda.'The breakdown of the non-oil taxes performance trend showed a collection of N30.52 billion in Gas Income (GI); N505.88 billion of Company Income Tax (CIT); N9.19 billion of Capital Gains Tax (CGT); and Stamp Duty (SD), N4.51 billion.Also, Value Added Tax (VAT) collection, which is part of the non-oil receipt, was N377.86 billion in Non-Import VAT, with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Import VAT being N125. 08 billion.Also, Education Tax (EDT) accounted for N74. 91 billion while, National Information Technology Development Fund (NITDF) recorded N7.8 billion collections.Equally, Personal Income Tax (PIT) recorded N39.92 billion and Pre-Operational Levy (POL) yielded N0.34 billion.However, the total tax yield with the inclusion of Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) from January to September 2011 stood at N3.37 trillion, a ratio of 64 to 36 of oil and non-oil revenue collections.The PPT accounted for N2.19 trillion of the total figures.From the PPT amount, the month of August recorded the highest takes of N315. 78 billion followed by N307. 05 billion collected in June.The Service collected N306.78 billion in July, N265.66 billion in September, N254.78 billion in February, N236.75 billion in January, N184.19 billion in April, N165.89 billion in March and N156.94 billion in May.With this performance, which is 90 per cent of the Service's yearly target of N3.74 trillion, it is expected that FIRS would not only meet but also surpass its yearly projection.
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