Posted October 10, 2012 by Emmanuel Bello in Features

How Nigeria can realise vision 20:2020

By Haruna Bature –
Nigeria is blessed with natural resources as waterways, rivers, streams and arable land, oil etc. The nations potential is to be one of the biggest economics in the world year 2020, it will be in huge setback due to corruption, despite all its large deposit of solid minerals resources, almost all of them at the highest quality.
The discovery of oil which has since beginning of its exploration thrown up the country as one of the highest income earning nations. And the country continue to discover more oil deposits in locations within it territory despite all the resources the country are in huge poverty rate due to inability of executive governments agency holders to perform their task.
If our great country will have somebody like the Ag chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service, I bet you Nigeria no doubt Nigeria will achieve it’s agenda vision 20:2020. The acting executive chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service FIRS, Alhaji Kabir Mashi, had on assumption of office; early April has won Nigerians for hardwork and dedication towards achieving the set target, by charging both management and staff of the service to up the ante and ensure that the progressive history of tax revenue collection by FIRS over the years does not drop.
Now in this country we have very few kind of the current acting chairman of FIRS.
Vision 20:2020 will be achieve if FIRS emulate Nigeria to achieve its vision of becoming one of the top 20 economics by 2020. There needs for government agency to emulate the system of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). The agency has recorded an increase in the tax revenue collection with the realization of N3.401 trillion in the kitty as at August out of N3.6trillion provisional annual budget estimates for year 2012.
The recent revelation by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) that out of the N3.401trillion it collected in the first eight months non-oil taxes recorded N1.187 trillion of the cumulative figures, while oil revenue accounted for N2.202.
According to my research the total collection by Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) the eight months of the year represents an increase in the tax revenue collection performance of N468.65billion when compare to the total collection of N2.93trillion for the same period in 2011. The service has less than N233,57 billion to achieve governments annual estimate of the N3.6 trillion, an average monthly. collection of N302.95billion set for the FIRS in the current fiscal.
However, the total collection as of the year May, 2012 amounted to N1.886 trillion as against the governments target for the same period of N1.515 trillion for the same this translate of 125percent of the set target with positive variance of N371billion.
In the first quarter of a total tax generation of N1.172trillion, oil and gas earnings accounted for N857.162billion representing 26.8per cent.
During the second quarter, which ended in June this year, there was a leap in the performance of non-oil collection as, out of a total of N 1.264trillion, the gap narrowed the gas taxes contributing N743.950billion or 58.7per cent.
The Federal Inland Revenue service has promise Nigerians if they gets support from Federal Ministry of Finance and the presidency they can make-up to N15trillion yearly.
Talking by experience our dear president will do all things possible in order to give his maximum support to the agency and the Ag chairman Alhaji Kabiru Mashi.
I challenge the executive holders of all governments agency to emulate the Acting Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Alhaji Kabir Mashi for our dear country Nigeria to achieve its vision 20:2020
Bature wrote in from Kaduna.