States’ Revenue Jumps 46.11% in 2018 -Fowler

• States’ Revenue Jumps 46.11% in 2018 -Fowler

The total revenue generated by the 36 states of the federation rose from N800.02 billion in 2016 to N1.6 trillion in 2018, an increase of 46.11 percent, the Federal Internal Revenue Service (FIRS) reported on Thursday.

Mr. Babatunde Fowler, the Chairman, FIRS, attributed the increase to policies of the federal government.

Fowler, who spoke during the North-Central regional flag-off of the New Tax Identification Number (TIN) Registration System and National Consolidated Taxpayer Database, said the national tax base grew from 10 million to 20 million and it is expected to increase further to around 45 million by December 2019.

The Chairman also noted that federal revenue jumped by 53.81 percent from N3.30 trillion in 2016 to N5.32 trillion in 2018.

This bolstered the total non-oil revenue to N2.85 trillion or 54 percent of total revenue generation.

He said: “The new TIN registration system would improve the efficiency and output of the entire tax administration process and enhance convenience to the taxpayers as well as the tax administrators while guaranteeing that each taxpayer’s details are readily available to them at all times and anywhere.

“A significant feature of the new system is that it possesses the capability to integrate with all relevant agencies by leveraging on already captured data. With its ability to deploy analytics to discover underlying correlating trends and patterns, better visibility of the taxpayer is assured inherently leading to increased Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for all tiers of government.

“Thus, the new system reduces the burden of taxpayer information management while at the same time significantly reducing the cost of collection,” he stated.