The National Assembly has raised the 2025 revenue target for the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to ₦25 trillion after the agency surpassed its ₦19.4 trillion revenue collection goal for 2024, as set in the Appropriation Act.
During a presentation on Wednesday, FIRS Executive Chairman Zacch Adedeji outlined the agency’s 2024 performance and future projections, prompting the National Assembly’s joint Committee on Finance to propose the ambitious new target.
Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Hon. Saidu Musa Abdullahi, commended FIRS for its “unprecedented” achievement and urged the agency to adopt strategies like South Africa’s tax model, which generates higher revenues despite a smaller population.
He also emphasized the need to bring more taxable citizens from the informal sector into the tax net, pledging full support for ongoing tax reforms.
Hon. Benedict Sapele, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the ₦25 trillion target, arguing that FIRS could expand its tax net further to generate as much as ₦60 trillion in 2025, reducing the nation’s reliance on borrowing to fund its budget.
In response, Adedeji highlighted inefficiencies caused by multiple tax-collecting agencies and stressed the importance of passing the progressive tax bill to reduce revenue leakages. He also cautioned against taxing the informal sector without formalizing it first, stating that the priority should be expanding the taxpayer base and integrating more individuals into the formal economy.
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