A whopping N248,871,621,023.767 billion went into the coffers of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Resources (through the Department of Petroleum Resources) as income from cost of revenue collection for the Nigerian government in 2018 alone.
Findings has shown that the monies went into the respective major revenue generating agencies as statutory and Value Added Tax (VAT) entitlements between the period of January and December 2018.
Expectedly, FIRS got the highest chunk of the money. From January to November (11 months) of the year under review, FIRS’s four percent cost of collection amounted to N83, 755,175,660.67 billion (both statutory and VAT). On the other side, the Nigeria Customs Service’ seven percent deduction from the revenue generated in the 11 months stood at N47,892,491,791.84 billion, during which DPR took the sum of N45223953571.04 billion as its four percent cost of revenue collection.
In December alone, the three agencies also got the sum total of N72.187 billion, based on independent findings by LEADERSHIP. FIRS made the biggest revenue for itself in July when it took a whopping sum of N12.21 billion as cost of revenue collection for the month of June alone.
Compared to the N194.52 billion disbursed to the 36 States of the federation, FIRS would have made over double the allocation to each state in the month of July. A detailed analysis of the figures showed each State got N5.4 billion in July, in a month each of the 774 LGCs received paltry N189.987 million. DPR also got increased revenue sum of N5.4 billion, with NCS keeping its fair share of N4.818 billion within July. N4,141,323,813.22 billion.
What that means is that each of the agencies, especially FIRS got more than the monthly allocation to each of the States. Compared to 2017, deductions to the agencies in 2018 were obviously higher than what was recorded in the same period of 2017 when the country was in recession and prices of oil products lower.
The agencies retain the respective percentage as cost of revenue collections they make on behalf of the federal government and the States and Local Councils. The deductions are for self-funding of their individual operations. The three agencies are not captured in the annual federal budget.
Official documents showed that FIRS remitted about N4.63 trillion to the Federation Account between January and November, 2018. According to the revenue agency, the collections were chiefly from three major tax streams, namely Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Companies Income Tax (CIT) and Value Added Tax (VAT).
FIRS is setting an N8 trillion target of revenue generation for itself in 2019. It has failed to meet its target since the last three years.
In that same vein, the Nigeria Customs Service announced a total revenue generation to the federation account last weekend. It put the total remittance at N1, 202,271,240,478.30 trillion for the year 2018. Its jubilation was that the 2018 figures N1, 037,373,967,400.80 billion collected in 2017 by are presenting N164, 897,273,077.50 billion
Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) described the result to what he called dogged pursuit of what is right rather than being populist by compromising national interest on the altar of individual or group interests.