By Onome Amuge
The federal government raked in N1.18 trillion in taxes from consumers of goods and services and corporates in the first quarter of 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistic (NBS).
The NBS, in its value added tax (VAT) and Company Income Tax (CIT) report, also showed that combined revenue generated from both taxes, dropped quarter on quarter (QoQ) by 18.6 percent to N1.18 trillion in the first quarter of 2023 (Q1’23) from N1.45 trillion in Q4’22.
However, the government recorded an increase in VAT as it raised N709.59 billion from VAT, 1.75 percent above N697.38 billion in Q4 ’22. VAT collections in Q1’23 also rose on a year-on-year basis as it increased by 20.6 percent from Q1’22.
A further breakdown of the VAT revenue showed that local VAT payments stood at N436.10 billion, foreign VAT payments were N151.13 billion, while import VAT contributed N122.37 billion to the government’s purse in the first quarter of the year.
“On a QoQ basis, the activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use recorded the highest growth rate with 349.86 percent, followed by construction with 95.64 percent,” the report showed.
In terms of sectoral contributions, the National Bureau of Statistics said the top three largest shares in the period under review were manufacturing with 29.6 percent; information and communication with 19.29 percent; and mining & quarrying with 12.2 percent.
The NBS, in its company income tax report for Q1’23 , said revenue generated from companies fell QoQ by 37.8 percent to N469.01 billion from N753.88 billion in Q4’22.
During the period under review, the government received N300.78 billion from local companies, while it generated N168.23 billion from foreign companies.
The country’s rail transportation data for Q1’23 showed that a total of 441,725 passengers travelled via the rail system. The figure is lower than the 953,099 reported in the corresponding quarter of 2022 as it represented a growth rate of -53.65 per cent.
Meanwhile, a total of 59,966 tonnes of goods were transported in the first quarter of 2023 compared to 39,379 tonnes recorded in Q1 2022.
According to the rail transport data, N768.44 million was received from passengers over the period, lower by 63.02 per cent relative to N2.08 billion in the same quarter of the previous year.
On the other hand, N181.27 million was collected in Q1 2023 as revenue from goods/cargos, up by 99.28 per cent from N90.96 million received in Q1 2022.
In addition, other receipts amounted to N34.17 million, indicating a decline of 41.02 per cent in Q1 2023, from the N57.92 million collected in the corresponding period of 2022.
