Senate approves N168.8bn 2020 budget for FIRS 

The Senate on Wednesday approved the sum of N168,809,476,220 to fund the proposed 2020 budget of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS).

The approval covers the agency’s personnel, overhead and capital expenditure cost for the 2020 fiscal year.

The approval followed the consideration of a report presented by the Senate Committee on Finance.

The Chairman of the Committee, Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, while giving a summary of the budget, said N1.56 trillion was projected as a collection for oil revenue and N4.502 trillion from non-oil revenue for the service.

Adopting the recommendations of the report, the Senate called for the digitization of all processes in the administration of tax in FIRS, to bring the Service up-to-speed with rapidly increasing online economic activities.

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The upper legislative chamber also approved a one-off special-purpose intervention fund to the tune of N100 billion to assist the FIRS to complete its head office and six training schools within 12 months.

The fund is also designed to help build 30 Prototype Tax Operations Office, purpose-built facilities for efficient taxation of the upstream sector of the petroleum industry and Information and Communication (ICT) infrastructure to identify and track digital transactions.

Senate also approved that the budget for the financial year must terminate on December 31 to ensure adherence to the January to December financial year.

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