Latest tax data by Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on tax payment in Nigeria shows that federal tax revenue for the first quarter of 2018 has increased 22 percent year-on-year from the corresponding period of 2017.
The data which was verified and validated by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicates that value added tax (VAT) data for the reporting period increased to N269.79 billion in the first three months of 2018 as against N221.38 billion generated in Q1 2017.
The growth, according to analysts, is indicative of effective fiscal policies undertaken by the Federal Ministry of Finance in form of the Voluntary Asset and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS).
The tax revenue generated for the review period, also increased 6.17 percent Quarter-on-Quarter from N254.10 billion generated in Q4 2017.
Recording the highest growth among sectors was the local government councils sector, with a year-on-year growth of 350 percent and a quarter on quarter growth of 123.5 percent to N449.6 million. Conversely, the agricultural and plantations sector recorded the largest tax generation decline of 32.9 percent. The sector’s generated tax in Q1 2018 stood at N372.6 billion against N554.9 billion generated in the same period of 2017.
Further analysis of the sectorial distribution towards total VAT generated, showed that other manufacturing generated the highest amount of VAT with N30.14 billion and was followed closely by professional services and commercial and trading, which both generated N16.58 billion and N14.93 billion respectively.
The mining sector generated the least at N46.25 million, while the pharmaceutical, soaps & toiletries and textile and garment industry contributed N243.44 million and N285.43 million respectively.
Out of the total amount generated in Q1 2018, N121.40 billion was generated as non-import VAT locally while N98.40 billion was generated as non-import VAT for foreign. The balance of N50.00bn was generated as NCS-import VAT.
