The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, has said that federal government generated N797.52 billion as revenue from Value Added Tax between January and October 2017.
The figure, according to a statement by Special Adviser, Media & Communications to Minister of Finance, Mr. Oluyinka Akintunde, in Abuja, yesterday, represents 46.15 per cent of the 2017 VAT budget of N1.728 trillion as captured in the 2017 budget.
The minister, who released the details of the 2017 VAT collection, yesterday, in Abuja, said the highest VAT collection of N86.71 billion was achieved in September 2017, while N84.67 billion and N83.315 billion were recorded in May and October, respectively. The lowest VAT earning of N69.20 billion was in March 2017.
Adeosun reiterated the current administration’s commitment to aggressively growing the tax revenue base to drive economic growth.
She was quoted as saying: “Revenue mobilisation is key to national growth and critical to the success of Nigeria’s economic reform agenda. We have an unacceptably low level of non-oil revenue and much of that is driven by a failure to collect tax revenues.
“With a tax to Gross Domestic Product ratio of only six per cent, which is one of the lowest levels in the world, we have a lot of work to do if we are going to build a sustainable revenue base that will deliver inclusive growth. Improving VAT and other tax collections is key to Nigeria’s revenue strategy.”
She added that the country’s revenue strategy to improve tax through the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme, VAIDS, would lead to a broader tax base and more sustainable revenue for all tiers of government.
“The Nigerian Government is committed to the diversification of the nation’s revenue base. Nigeria’s sole dependence on oil poses enormous challenge on the economy.
“Oil is only 13 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but it represents 70 per cent of government’s revenue, which means if anything happens to oil, it affects everybody.
“The question we need to ask ourselves is: why is the remaining 87 per cent of GDP contributing so little to government’s revenue? If we are able to have those other revenues which are much more stable, predictable and less volatile, then if the oil price goes down, we’ll be able to maintain some level of stability,” she added.
According to her, the federal government would continue to collaborate with sate governments as part of its determined efforts to grow the non-oil revenue base, including raising the VAT collection to N100 billion monthly.
