By NGOZI Onyeakusi …..

 

Kemi Adeosun

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, yesterday disclosed that Federation Account recorded a revenue inflow of to the tune of N797.51bn from Value Added Tax from January and October 2017.

The highest VAT collection of N86.71b according to the minister was recorded by the federation in September, while the sums of N84.67bn and N83.315bn were recorded in May and October, respectively.

However, March 2017 saw a decline as it experienced the lowest VAT earning of N69.20bn, she explained.

Explaining further, Adeosun stated that the framework under which VAT is administered allows the Federal Government to get 15 per cent of VAT revenue, while the states and local governments receive 50 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively even she assured the Federal Government’s commitment to aggressively growing the tax revenue base in order to drive economic growth.

According her, “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.”