FCT- IRS Records Exponential Growth, Surpasses 2023 Target

By Remi Johnson

The Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service, FCT-IRS, has set a target to generate 250 billion naira in the year 2024.

Acting Executive Chairman FCT- IRS, Mr Haruna Abdullahi who stated this during a media parley in Abuja, said the Service surpassed its N200b target for the year 2023.

Mr Haruna expressed optimism that the Service would surpass the 2024 target with the various innovations put in place to enhance efficiency in the tax system, and the over 600 resilient workforce across its 17 offices in the territory.

To achieve the target, Mr Haruna said the Service would embark on intensive enforcement exercise by ensuring that all relevant provisions of the tax laws are enforced to get defauters prosecuted towards recovering all debts.

He also hinted that the service has automated most of its services to promote ease of doing business for taxpayers.

According to him, “the Service would further leverage on the use of technology to enhance its operations in the area of compliance, enforcement and also seek to consolidate the culture of transparency and accountability in order to build trust and cooperation between the service and the taxpayers.

“The focus will be in the deployment of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, collaboration tools, business process automation and data analytical tools to facilitate compliance and performance of routine tasks aimed at encouraging voluntary compliance and ease of doing business”.

The tax boss further reiterated commitment to make the tax offices accessible to a broader population towards promoting overall organizational growth.

To encourage voluntary compliance, the FCT-IRS has established a Self Service portal (www.fctirs.gov.ng) to enable Taxpayers request for Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), file annual returns, make payment and request for TCC from the comfort of their homes or offices.

Mr Haruna Abdullahi explained that the FCT-IRS has a 6year strategic plan, covering Foundation stage of 2015 to 2017, & Growth stage 2017 to 2023.

According to him, all is now set for the Service to go into the Consolidation stage from 2024-2029.

Mr Haruna therefore appealed to all MDAs, taxable residents, and employees to make it a great deal to file their annual tax returns on or before 31st January of every year for employers and 31st March of every year for individuals to avoid sanctions.

“The FCT-IRS for the first time since its inception in 2015 has exceeded the N200 billion mark by generating the sum of N203,147,090,410.5 as annual revenue for the year 2023.

“This is a huge milestone for the Service and it represents about 63.34% increase in collection from the preceding year.
The Tax Revenue Collection of the FCT-IRS grew from barely N46 billion in 2017 to over N124 billion in 2022 indicating over 270% growth.

“The Service has invested in modern working tools such as hardware and software in processes of registration, payment, receipting, assessment, Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) issuance, filing of returns, TCC verification, and generation of withholding tax credit note have all been automated”.

“We are determined and optimistic that we will realize and surpass N250b with the committed and dedicated staff of the Service, support from the FCT Administration, the National Assembly and other key stakeholders especially our esteemed taxpayers, it is achievable and the task ahead is surmountable”. Haruna said.

Edited By Grace Namiji