FIRS generates ₦5 trillion, targets ₦5.3 trillion by year end

Babatunde Fowler, FIRS

The Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Mr. Tunde Fowler has said the Service has generated ₦5 trillion by the second week of December 2018, adding that the agency is at the verge of making ₦5.3 trillion at the end of the year.

Speaking at the induction of new members of the Joint Tax Board, JTB, in Abuja, Fowler said: “This year, the FIRS, with the support of the Presidency, Ministry of Finance, the JTB and other stakeholders, has been able to generate up to N5 trillion. We believe that we should be able to close at least at N5.3 trillion which should be the highest in the history of FIRS. And we believe that with that additional revenue, the state and federal governments would be able to provide more services and more development to the people of Nigeria.”

Fowler urged the new inductees to JTB to equip themselves with new ideas and embrace the Information and Communication Technology, ICT, to be able to face the reality of revenue collection in the ever-changing society.

His words: “I see it as a privilege to be addressing this class of inductees today as history has chosen you at this critical point in time in our nation’s development to steer the ship of sustainable revenue generation.

“While preparing for this occasion, I came across an observation by the American inventor and author Ray Kurzweil where he noted that the rate of scientific and technological change is exponential rather than linear. This observation presupposes that the better part of applied wisdom requires that in our journey of life we are capable of identifying the most apt moment to know at what point to adapt to the ever-tumultuous sea that modern existence represents.

“It also indicates that we should be able to develop the ability to accept and embrace positive change, maybe due to the fact that change is inevitable, but more significantly that oftentimes, change presents us with the rare breaks that we can exploit to advance individual and collective goals and objectives.”

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