The House of Representatives on Tuesday, 7 July 2020 approved the 2020 budget of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in the sum of N168,809,476,220 (One Hundred and Sixty-Eight Billion, Eight Hundred and Nine Million, Four Hundred and Seventy-Six Thousand, Two Hundred and Twenty) Naira only. The approval of the budget was preceded by the presentation of the Report of the Committee on Finance on the budget and the consideration of the Committee’s recommendations by the Committee on Supply.

Giving an overview of the House Committee on Finance’s Report, the Chairman, Hon. James Abiodun Faleke (Lagos:APC) highlighted the following:

• FIRS operates on zero budget and based on net available funds
• Revenue estimate is based on benchmarks in 2020-2022 MTEF
  • Projected Oil revenue estimate- N1.56 Trillion
  • Projected Non oil revenue estimate- N4.502 billion
  • Projected 4% cost of collection for FIRS- N180.086 billion
  • Projected 2% cost of collection ceded to the Nigeria Customs Service – N11.279billion
  • Net cost of collection- N168.8 billion
  • VAT rate- 7.5%
  • Personnel cost- N97.3 billion
  • Overhead cost- N38.89 billion
  • Capital estimate (on-going and new projects)- N31.63 billion
• There was an upwards growth rate in available funds from N146.650 billion to N168.8 billion and personnel numbers from over 5,000 in 2007 to 10,700 in 2020.
• Absence of technology is a major challenge

The House approved the following:

• A total expenditure of N168,809,476,220 to defray the proposed Personnel, Overhead and Capital expenditure cost of the Service during the fiscal year 2020
• Digitalisation of all processes in the administration of tax in FIRS
• FIRS (Establishment) Act and other tax laws to be amended to make it possible for FIRS to modernise its operations with relevant technology
• Approval of One-Off Special Purpose Fund of N100, 000,000,000 to enable FIRS complete its new HQ, build 6 Training schools, 30 prototype tax operations office, Purpose-built facilities for efficient taxation of the Upstream Petroleum Industry and ICT infrastructure to identify and track digital transactions.