Revenue From VAT Rises By 19% To N968bn In 2017

Federally collected revenue from Value Added Tax (VAT) rose to N968 billion in 2017, up by N156.7 billion or 19 percent from N811 billion recorded in 2016. This was contained in the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Economic Report for the fourth quarter of 2017 (Q4 2017).

But on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the report revealed that VAT revenue generated by government increased marginally by N4.57 billion (a one percent increase) to N253.46 in Q4 2017 from N248.89 billion recorded previous quarter (Q3’17). CBN further disclosed that of the N253.46 billion collected, N243.4 billion was transferred to the VAT Pool Account from which the federal government was allocated N36.58 billion; while the state and local governments were allotted N121.66 billion and N85.16 billion, respectively.

The report also stated: “The Provisional Federal Government retained revenue for the fourth quarter of 2017 was estimated at N731.61 billion. Of the total revenue, Federation Account accounted for 87.2 per cent, while VAT, Federal Government Independent Revenue and Exchange Gain accounted for 5.0 percent, 4.5 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively. “The total allocation to state governments from the Federation Account, including the 13.0 percent Derivation Fund and the VAT Pool Account was N578.05 billion in the review quarter.

This was lower than the proportionate quarterly budget estimate by 31.9 per cent. A breakdown showed that the receipts from the Federation Account totalled N456.39 billion (79.0 percent), while the share from VAT pool account stood at N121.66 billion (21.0 percent). The receipt from the VAT Pool Account was 43.7 per cent below the proportionate budget estimates. “Meanwhile, total allocations to local governments from the Federation and VAT Pool Accounts in the fourth quarter of 2017 stood at N344.21 billion.

This was below the proportionate quarterly budget estimate by 32.9 per cent. Of the total amount, allocation from the Federation Account was N259.05 billion (75.3 percent), while the VAT Pool Account stood at N85.16 billion (24.7 percent),” the report added.