By Dipo Olowookere
The sum of N269.79 billion was generated as Value Added tax (VAT) in the first quarter of 2018 by the Federal Government, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed.
Out of the total amounted generated in Q1 2018, N121.4 billion was generated as Non-Import VAT locally while N98.4 billion was generated as Non-Import VAT for foreign, and the balance of N50 billion generated as NCS-Import VAT.
The stats office said the sectoral distribution of VAT data for Q1 2018 reflected that the N269.8 billion generated as VAT in Q1 2018 was against the N254.1 billion generated in Q4 2017 and N221.4 billion in Q1 2017 representing 6.17 percent increase quarter-on-quarter and 21.87 percent increase year-on-year.
It said in its report that other manufacturing generated the highest amount of VAT with N30.1 billion generated and closely followed by Professional Services and Commercial and Trading both generating N16.6 billion and N14.9 billion respectively while Mining generated the least and closely followed by Pharmaceutical, Soaps & Toiletries and Textile and Garment industry with N46.3 million, N243.4 million and N285.4 million generated respectively.