FIRS generates N312b from VAT, as income rises by 7.9%

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) generated N311.94 billion revenue for government through the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT), between April and June, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown.

The figure, according to the NBS, represents a 7.9 per cent quarter-on-quarter increase from the N269.79 billion generated in Q2 of 2018, and 16.95 per cent year-on-year.

The manufacturing sector generated the highest VAT figure, bringing in a total of N34.4 billion. Professional services delivered the second highest with N29.58 billion, while commercial and trading, which placed third, generated N16.27 billion.

In the fourth place is the textile and garment, which generated N316. 91million. The pharmaceutical sector brought in N250.09 million, while mining generated N50.6 million, the least amount.

Of the total VAT collection for the quarter, the sum of N151.56 billion was generated as non-import VAT locally and N94.90 billion as non-import VAT for foreign. The balance N65.48 billion was generated as NCS-Import VAT.

Meanwhile, FIRS said it generated the sum of N3.5 trillion as revenue into Federal Government coffers between the months of January and September, 2018.

The Executive Chairman, FIRS, Tunde Fowler, had recently disclosed that the amount generated was N1trillion higher than the revenue it generated in the corresponding period of 2017.

The development showed that despite the challenging tax environment in the country, VAT collections have remained on the upward trend since 2016.