The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it will go after 40, 000 millionaire who have been defaulting on taxes in 2019. According to a statement released in Abuja on Thursday, Babatunde Fowler, FIRS executive chairman, made this known while receiving Mohammed Adamu, the acting inspector general of police.
Fowler said the FIRS recovered N23 billion from 45,000 people who had more than N100 million in their accounts in 2018 through substitution of their bank accounts. “Let me put on record that the Nigeria Police Force has been extremely helpful to FIRS. Without the Police, I doubt if the Service would have been able to achieve what we have achieved,” the statement quoted the FIRS boss to have said.
“2018 was a successful year. The FIRS collected a total of N5.320 trillion of tax revenue. This is the highest revenue collection in the history of the service. “Oil price was at an average of $100 to $120 per barrel between 2012 when FIRS collected N5.07 trillion.
“Oil component of the N5.320 trillion is N2.467 trillion, which represents 46.38 per cent, while the non-oil element of the collection is N2.852 trillion, which is equal to 53.62 per cent.” Fowler said the service would give the police a list of the tax defaulters to enable collaboration between both agencies.
The acting I-G assured FIRS that the Police would continue to support the service because the job of revenue generation was critical to the survival of the nation. Adamu said that the service rendered by FIRS is important for the survival of the country.
