Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it recorded a total tax collection of N3.303 trillion in 2016.

No fewer than 14 million taxpayers were also captured in the national tax roll as at December 2016.

The introduction of its “waiver of interest and penalty” policy, FIRS added, has so far equally raked in N27 billion.

The policy was designed to promote voluntary compliance and shield taxpayers from the burden of carrying forward tax liabilities arising from penalty and interest.

Executive Chairman of FIRS, Mr. Babatunde Fowler, made the disclosures at the opening of a five-day journalism training programme on taxation, sponsored by the FIRS, in Abuja.

Fowler, who was represented at the occasion by FIRS Director, Debt Management, Mr. Femi Faniyi, noted that in spite of a challenged economy, his agency recorded a

N3.303 trillion collection “in a year when oil prices dropped to less than $50 a barrel for over nine months and when the value of stocks on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) slid and purchasing power was slim.

“The Service is convinced that with progressive application of technology, persuasion and enforcement on recalcitrant taxpayers, and partnership with key stakeholders like the media, we will collect sufficient revenue for the nation in 2017.”

Fowler noted that in a bid to expand the tax net, his agency commenced a massive nationwide registration exercise of new taxpayers, culminating in the registration of 814,000 additional taxpayers by December 2016.

According to him, 3.4 million taxpayers were also registered by State Internal Revenue Services (SIRSs) as at Decemeber last year.

Fowler put Nigeria’s national tax roll at 14 million as at last December.

FIRS, he said, successfully implemented a waiver of interest and penalty for three years (2013 to 2015).

The service, by this entirely new idea, Fowler stressed, has so far realised N27 billion.

The FIRS chief executive also pointed out that the ease of tax payment model, which requires taxpayers to file their tax returns at the FIRS offices nearest to them has increased compliance.

This, he stated, eased the burden of taxpayers who have had to travel from far places to pay their taxes.

Thisday