The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) yesterday said it surpassed its 2014 target by N400 billion or 9.32 per cent, generating about N4.69 trillion in Federal Government taxes.

According to its quarterly revenue report released in Abuja, the revenue derived from a combination of petroleum profit and non-oil taxes, including income tax, gas income, capital gain tax, stamp duty and Value Added Tax (VAT), was, however, N106 billion less than previous year’s N4.80 trillion.

A breakdown of the figure revealed that petroleum profit tax was the cash cow, contributing N2.45 trillion, or 52.96 per cent of total revenue, while the remaining N2.24 trillion, or 47.04 per cent, was collected from non-oil taxes.

Of the non-oil taxes, N1.18 trillion was collected from company income tax, followed by N802.95 billion in VAT collections, comprising Nigeria Customs Service Import VAT and Non-Import VAT, during the period. Another N10.83 billion came from gas income, N2.59 billion from capital gain tax and N10.94 billion from stamp duty during the review period.

Other non-oil taxes collected within the year, the report continued, included Education Tax, N189.61 billion; N53.28 billion from Consolidated Account and N9.91 billion from National Information Technology Development Fund (NITDEF) levy.

A further breakdown showed that the 2014 second quarter collections were the highest at N1.45 trillion, followed by N1.19 trillion the following quarter, while the first quarter yielded N1.05 trillion and N1.0 trillion between October and December.

Adapted from Daily Independence