Nigeria Customs, FIRS and DPR Shared N142bn as Work Incentives in Buhari’s First Year in Office

Nigeria Customs, FIRS and DPR Shared N142bn as Work Incentives in Buhari’s First Year in Office

It has been revealed that three major revenue collecting agencies of the federal government have shared a total of N142.6 billion as work incentives between June 2015 and May 2016.

According to Vanguard, the amount represents the cost of revenue collected by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

Reports of an investigation carried out by the Economic Confidential revealed that the FIRS kept back N85.94 billion between June 2015 and May 2016, being four percent of the total sum of its revenue collection into the federation account.

The Customs service similarly retained the sum of N35.78 billion which was seven percent of the total revenue it collected for the federation, while the DPR, got N20.88 billion being four percent of its collected revenue within the period under review.

The total cost of collection of the FIRS being N85.94 billion was higher than the combination of what NCS and DPR received which amounted to N56.66 billion.

An analysis of the report showed that the highest cost of collections shared by the revenue collecting agencies were made in 2015, while the lowest disbursements were made in 2016.

The highest cost of collection received by FIRS was N23bn in July 2015; that of NCS was N3.5bn in November 2015 and that of DPR was N2.5bn in July 2015.

Conversely, the lowest cost of collections received by FIRS was N4.2bn in April 2016, that of NCS was N1.1bn in May 2016 and DPR was also N1.1bn in March 2016.

The three federal revenue collecting agencies are the beneficiaries of special allocations from the Federation Account as work incentives for their revenue drive.

The President Muhammadu Buhari administration has repeatedly stressed its focus on non-oil revenue with emphatic mentions of customs duty and taxes. Finance minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, also hinted at an upward review of work incentives paid to the revenue agencies.

The Nigeria Customs Service headed by Col Hamid Ali (rtd) has a N1trillion target for the year and is expected to substantially contribute to the funding of Nigeria’s deficit 2016 budget.

FIRS chairman, Mr Babatunde Fowler, similarly set a target of N5trn in revenue collection for the agency for the year.