FG rakes in N651.77bn from VAT in six months

Revenue generated from value-added tax increased by 8.45 percent from the N600.9 billion realised in half-year 2019 to N651.7 billion in 2020.

According to the sectoral distribution on value-added tax report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday, the total revenue was generated from 28 sectors of the economy.

“Sectoral distribution of value-added tax (VAT) data for H1’2020 reflected that the sum of N651.77bn was generated as VAT in H1’2020 as against N600.98bn generated in the first half of 2019 (H1’2019)” the report read.

“This represents a 8.45 percent growth year-on-year (YoY).”

Professional services generated the highest with N75.92 billion generated, followed by other manufacturing (N67.63 billion); commercial and trading (N31.10 billion); breweries, bottling and beverages (N24.76 billion); and states ministries and parastatals (N22.50 billion).

Mining generated the least amount with N127.57 million.

Other sectors that were ranked in the nether end were textile and garment industry (N499.18 million); pharmaceutical, soaps and toiletries (N648.77 million); local government councils (N802.38 million); and publishing, printing, paper packaging (N884.34 million).

According to the report, N335.82 billion was generated as non-import VAT locally while N161.74 billion was generated as non-import VAT for foreign while the balance of N154.21 billion was generated as Nigeria Custom Service-import VAT.

Nigeria began implementation of the 7.5 percent VAT, which was part of the tax amendments made in the 2019 finance act, in February 2020.