FG earned N14.45tr non-oil revenue in 6 yrs

The federal government generated N14.45 trillion from non-oil economic activities in the last six years, records show.

Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday showed that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) earned the revenues from Company Income Tax (CIT) and Value Added Tax (VAT) from 2015, when President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office for the first term, to 2020.

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The breakdown of the earnings showed that the federal government generated N2.27 trillion in 2015, N1.80tr in 2016, N2.22tr in 2017, N2.52tr in 2018, N2.68tr in 2019 and N2.94t in 2020 from CIT and VAT combined.

The analysis showed that within the six-year period, the total revenues from VAT amounted to N6.46tr while N7.99tr was generated from CIT.

Further analysis showed that the government made N884.16 billion from VAT in 2015, N777.5bn in 2016, N972.34bn in 2017, N1.11tr in 2018, N1.19tr in 2019 and N1.53tr in 2020.

A value-added tax (VAT) is a consumption tax placed on a product whenever a value is added at each stage of the supply chain, from production to the point of sale.

The government also generated N1.39tr from CIT in 2015, N1.02tr in 2016, N1.25tr in 2017, N1.42tr in 2018, N1.50tr in 2019 and N1.41tr in 2020.

Daily Trust observed that the CIT exceeded collections from value-added tax from 2015 to 2019.

In 2020, the record was broken when VAT collections exceeded company income tax collections.

The FIRS generated N1.53tr from VAT as against the N1.41tr collected from CIT, and this may not be unconnected to the 50 per cent hike in VAT collection rate from five per cent to 7.5 per cent implemented last year.