The Federal Government’s total collection from Value Added Tax (VAT) in the second quarter of 2024 amounted to N1.56 trillion, marking a 9.11% increase compared to the first quarter’s N1.43 trillion, according to a VAT revenue report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Leading sectors contributing to VAT collection were Manufacturing, Information, and Communication, which accounted for 11.78%, followed by Information and Communication with 9.02%, and Mining and Quarrying with 8.79%.
In Q2 2024, local payments amounted to N792.58 billion, Foreign VAT Payments reached N395.74 billion, and import VAT contributed N372.95 billion.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the sectors experiencing the highest growth rate in VAT collection were human health and social work activities with 98.44%, agriculture, forestry, and fishing with 70.26%, and water supply, sewerage, waste management, and remediation activities with 59.75%.
Conversely, activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use had the lowest growth rate with 46.84%, followed by real estate activities with 42.59%.
According to the NBS, activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use accounted for the smallest share with 0.00%, followed by activities of extraterritorial organizations and bodies with 0.01%, water supply, sewerage, waste management, and remediation activities, and real estate services with 0.04% each.
VAT collections in Q2 2024 witnessed a significant year-on-year increase of 99.82% compared to Q2 2023.
The Government has denied reports of plans to raise the current VAT rate of 7.5% to 10%. Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, stated that the VAT rate remains at 7.5% as stipulated in relevant tax laws.
Furthermore, the Minister clarified that the government and its agencies are committed to complying with the legal provisions and will not act contrary to them.
