The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday said the Nigerian government earned a total of N563.72bn in Value-Added Tax in the last three months of 2021, based on data provided by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). While the figure represented a year-on-year increase of 23.98% over the Q4 2020 VAT collections figure in Q4 2021, it was 12.63% better than the N500.49bn recorded in the previous quarter.

A breakdown of the figure showed that local payments (non-import VAT) accounted for N333.29bn, or 59.12% of the total, compared N295.473bn recorded in the 2021Q3; Foreign (non-import VAT) payment contributed N103.52bn, or 18.36%, as against the previous quarter’s N81.256bn; while the Nigerian Custom Service-import VAT stood at N126.899bn, or 22.51% of total, from N123.763bn.

“On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the activities of extraterritorial organizations and bodies recorded the highest growth rate with 150.16%, followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing with 92.48%. On the other hand, arts, entertainment and recreation had the lowest growth rate with -7.07%, followed by Education with -5.69%,” the NBS noted.

On sectoral contributions, the top three largest shares in Q4 2021, the report added, were manufacturing with N102.855bn or 30.86%; information and communication, N62.393bn, or 18.72%; Mining and Quarrying with N33.033bn, representing 9.91%; while other service activities pooled N18.277bn into the VAT basket within the period.

“Conversely, the activities of extraterritorial organizations and bodies recorded the least share with 0.02%, followed by activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods and services-producing activities of households for own use with 0.04%; and water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities with 0.11%,” it stressed.