Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler, on Monday said that the agency achieved N4 trillion as tax revenue collection in 2017.
Mr Fowler said this at the FIRS 2018 Management and Stakeholders in Lagos with theme, “Optimizing Tax Administration with Parliamentary Synergy”.
The agency recorded N3.3 trillion as revenue collection in 2016.
The chairman said he was hopeful that the country would be further moved forward through taxation.
“By putting our hands together in contribution on to our set goal, I am confident that we will surpass our past result and we will be on our way to the future we hope to achieve.
“It is clear that taxation is the most sustainable of all government revenue sources,” Fowler said.
According to him, there has been sustained decline in global price of oil in second half of 2014, making the revenue generated from it to stand at N2.45 trillion.
He also said that in 2015, 2016 and 2017, the nation’s revenue from oil stood at N1.29 trillion, N1.16 trillion and N1.52.
Fowler said the trend had adverse effects on the ability of oil dependent countries to meet their development objectives.
“For us in Nigeria, a decline in receipts from oil revenue and decline in accruals to states from the federal account has placed many states in a financial quandary, to the extent where basic obligation such as the payment of employee wage has become a perennial challenge,” he said.
Fowler also said what the retreat hoped to achieve was part of efforts to ensure that the country must act differently by looking beyond oil as the mainstay of the economy.
