Nigeria’s projected revenue for the first half of the year 2021 fell short by N1.76tn, official data have shown.
The country’s projected revenue for the 2021 fiscal year was N7.9tn, of which N3.9tn was earmarked as pro rata target for the first six months, according to a revenue performance report obtained from the Budget office of the federation.
Only N2.3tn, or 44.1 per cent of the pro rata estimate, had been generated as at June 2021, indicating a revenue gap of N1.8tn.
The aggregate revenue of N2.23tn for this period, comprised oil revenue of N492.4bn, non-oil revenue of N778.2bn and N922.1bn from other revenue sources including independent revenue of N558.1bn.
According to the report, “FGN share of oil revenues was N492.44bn (which represents 49 per cent performance), while non-oil tax revenues totalled N778.18bn (104.5 per cent of pro rata)
“Companies Income Tax and Value Added Tax collections were ahead of the budget targets with N397.02bn and N129bn, representing 116.5 per cent and 108.2 per cent respectively of the pro rata targets for the period
“Customs collection was N234.02bn (92.1 per cent of target). Other revenues amounted to N922.09bn, of which Independent revenues was N558.13bn.”
Zainab Ahmed,the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, had said, “The SRGI and Finance Act, 2020 will aid the economic recovery process of the Nigerian economy through initiatives and strategies that will grow fiscal revenues, improve the ease of doing business, counteract the impact of the oil price fluctuations and integral fiscal monetary and trade policies.
“Through the initiative, we hope to achieve cohesion between revenue generating entities and equipping them with cutting-edge tools and expertise needed to support high performance.’’
Revenue shortfall has continued to be a major issue for the government despite the initiative. Financial analysts have attributed this to cost of governance and poor tax generation.
