By Uche Mbah
Figures released from the National Bureau of Statistics Monday indicate that Nigeria generated N651.77 billion from Value Added Tax (VAT) in the first half of 2020, as against N600.98 billion. This indicates an 8.45% rise in revenue earned from the consumption tax within the same period of last year.
Local non-import VAT accounted for N335.82 billion of the total amount while N161.74 billion was generated as Non-Import VAT for foreign concerns. The Nigerian Custom service generated of N154.21 billion on import VAT during the period under review.
N95.92 billion was earned from professional services, while other aspects of Manufacturing generated N67.63 billion with Commercial and Trading generating N31.10 billion.
From the Mining, sector comes N127.58 million while Textile and Garment Industry generated N499.19 million. Pharmaceutical, Soaps and Toiletries contributed N648.78 million to the VAT basket.It was expected that the revenue generated will be more than the ones generated last half-year because the implementation of VAT commenced recently. Government had raised VAT from 5% to 7.5%, and that was expected to boost revenue, though some analysts believe that in real terms this is not so.
