FIRS Remits Over N309bn Education Tax To TETFund

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has remitted over N309 billion from education taxation to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund). The revenue generated by FIRS from across tertiary education institutions in the country between January and September 2022 exceeded the N305 billion budgeted for the full year.

Chairman of FIRS, Muhammad Nami, disclosed this, yesterday, at the opening of 2022 TETFund/FIRS Interactive Forum in Kano State tagged ‘Boosting Education Tax Collection for The Growth and Advancement of Tertiary Education in Nigeria’.

Nami, who revealed that despite the economic headwinds due to the Coronavirus Disease (COVID 19), insecurity and the spill-over effect of the Russia-Ukraine war on the global economy, said FIRS has sustained revenue mobilisation, progressively, in the country. He stressed that FIRS had been funding a significant portion of the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) in the last two years.

According to the FIRS boss, over N7.5 trillion was collected and remitted to the Consolidated Account between January and September 2022. In the said generated revenue, N4.3 trillion was realised from non-oil taxes while N3.1 trillion was collected from Petroleum Profits Tax. The sum shows significant improvement against last year’s N6.4 trillion.

Represented by Zonal coordinator, in charge of Kano, Katsina and Jigawa states, Hassan Sule, the FIRS boss emphasised the importance of the interactive session on education taxation, which serves as accountability platform between the administrators and taxpayers.

He explained: “Recent public engagements in the media space have referred to the fulfilment of social contract between government and the people, which is why showcasing the achievements of the fund is important for us at FIRS.

“The introduction of our tax administration solution (Taxpromax) has enhanced compliance and collection of taxes from taxpayers. More importantly, we have been able to deploy technology to ease the burden of compliance on the taxpayers. We are doing more in this regard and recently launched our service charter, which encapsulates the rights of taxpayers and the obligations of the tax administration to the taxpayers.”

Executive Secretary, TETFund, Sonny Echono, who placed high premium on sustained synergy with FIRS to stimulate improved education taxes, stressed the impact of increased taxes on the operational function of TETFund.

Echono, who was represented by Director, Human Resources and General Administration, Adamu Abubakar, disclosed that it had become imperative to sustain the yearly interactive platform with taxpayers to address challenges inimical to revenue growth.