The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has predicted that tax revenue from the sale of crude oil will be far less than what was realized in 2019.
Executive Chairman of FIRS, Mr. Muhammad Nami made the prediction at the 46th meeting of the Joint Tax Board (JTB) in Abuja on Friday.
According to him, “In 2019, only ₦250 billion was generated from oil taxes, what would be generated in 2020 would be far less than that of last year”.
Depending strongly on oil revenue as has been the practice he said was no longer feasible because of falling oil prices “hence the need to put necessary strategies to enhance non-oil sector for maximum revenue generation”.
Going forward, Nami said attention must shift from oil to non-oil revenue stressing that technology was key to achieving the shift.
To address the problem of dwindling revenue, the FIRS Chairman “urged states board of internal revenue service to leverage the use of technology to boost tax collection”.
Nami insisted that internal revenue agencies across the country “must leverage on technology to enhance tax collection, the concept of using manual model in collecting revenue is no longer obtainable”.
According to him, “people do a lot of businesses online; we must use electronic system to tax such persons or companies”.
The essence of the Friday Joint Tax Board (JTB) meeting he said is “to talk to ourselves on how we can use technology, data and information to enhance tax collection in the respective states.”
