The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said that Nigeria generated a total of N338.94 billion from the Valu Added Tax (VAT) in the first quarter of 2020.

This figure is 9.87 per cent more than the N308.48 billion earned in the fourth quarter of last year, the statistics bureau said in a report published on its Official Website Thursday.

According to the NBS, the amount generated in the first quarter of this year is also more than the N293.04 billion generated in the corresponding period of last year, driven by increase in activities in Professional Services.

It said that Professional Services generated the highest amount of VAT with N38.30 billion in the period under review while other Manufacturing generating N37.37 billion.
The report stated that the commercial and trading generated N17.19 billion in the first three months of the year, while Mining generated the least and closely followed by Textile and Garment Industry and Local Government Councils with N61.83 million, N306.05 million and N319.04 million generated respectively.

The report reads further: “Out of the total amount generated in the first quarter of 2020, N172.67 billion was generated as Non-Import VAT locally while N93.67 billion was generated as Non-Import VAT for foreign.

“The balance of N72.59 billion was generated as Nigerian Customs Service NCS-Import VAT”.
It could be recalled that Nigeria hiked its VAT rate this year from 5.0 per cent to 7.5 percent in a bid to boost non-oil revenue to reduce dependence on crude oil export earnings and improve government finance.