The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) have helped the Nigerian government collect N12.7tn in revenue in 2022, marking a significant 46.8% increase from the N8.7tn collected in the previous year.
This surge in revenue collection can be attributed to the government’s introduction of certain amendments in the Finance Act 2022, aimed at raising revenue collection in the country.
The amendments included the recognition of digital assets, including cryptocurrency, as chargeable assets and the introduction of taxes on Non-Resident Companies (NRCs) with a digital presence in Nigeria.
The data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) also revealed that the cost of collection incurred by the agencies was N462.81bn, which represents 2.6% of the total revenue collected.
This figure marks a significant increase of 29.6% YoY compared to N329.34bn (3.81% of 2021 total revenue) withdrawn by the agencies in 2021 as cost of collection.
The FIRS was the highest revenue collector, generating N10.1tn in revenue in 2022 while receiving N200.16bn (2% of total generation) as the cost of collection.
The NCS followed with N2.60tn in revenue generation and withdrew N128.64bn (5%) as cost of collection.
On the other hand, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), formerly the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), received the least revenue at N98.01bn. Nonetheless, this figure represents a 17.4% rise compared to N83.51bn received by the agency as collection in 2021.
The Nigerian government’s effort to improve its revenue collection system has yielded positive results, as evident in the significant increase in revenue collection by key agencies.
