The First Quarter of this year saw the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) collecting  N1.123 trillion by way of  revenue. This was contained in a statement issued this Thursday,  by its Director of Communications and Liaison Department, Mr. Abdullahi Ismaila, in Abuja.

He said the service recorded a 7 percent increase in its collection target for the first quarter of 2020 despite the global economic challenge caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to him, there was an unprecedented increment in revenue collection in the first quarter of 2020 when compared to the same period in 2019.

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He said: “A comparative analysis of the two periods shows that the FIRS collected N1.123 trillion in the first quarter of 2020,  N1.046 trillion for the first quarter in 2019. “A massive 568 percent increase in Capital Gains Tax from N96.408 million in Q1 2019 to N643.935 million in Q1 2020 which gave the Service’s revenue its biggest lift. “No doubt as a direct result of blockage of leaks in that revenue flow by the wide-ranging reforms inaugurated at the FIRS by its newly appointed Executive Chairman, Mr. Muhammad Nami, immediately he assumed office in December 2019.”