Bimbola Oyesola
The Federal Government generated N298.01 billion from Value Added Tax (VAT) in the fourth quarter of 2018, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported.
The NBS gave the update on its website in a Sectoral Distribution of VAT report for the fourth quarter, 2018.
VAT is a consumption tax on a product whenever value is added at each stage of the supply chain, from production to point of sale.
The report said that the figures in the quarter under review rose by 8.96 per cent quarter-on-quarter and by 17.28 per cent year-on-year.
It said the sum of N298.01 billion was generated as VAT in fourth quarter 2018, as against N273.50 billion generated in third quarter 2018, and N266.73 billion in second quarter, 2018.
According to the report, the manufacturing sector generated the highest amount of N28.82 billion VAT.
This was closely followed by Professional Services generating N24.12 billion, while Commercial and Trading generating N16.02 billion.
The NBS report also said that the mining sector generated the least amount of N35.75 million, Pharmaceutical N209.33 million, while Chemical and Allied Industries generated N258.39 million.
It added that N138.42 billion was generated as Non-Import VAT locally, while N47.89 billion was generated as VAT for foreign items in the quarter under review.
The bureau, however, said that the balance of N111.71 billion was generated as Nigeria-Customs Import VAT in the period under review.
The data for the report was provided by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), verified, and validated by the NBS.
Meanwhile, the NBS has equally reported that total credit from banks to the economy declined by N455billion from N15.58trillion as of the end of the third quarter of last year to N15.1trillion in the fourth quarter.
The NBS said the total number of members of staff in banks increased by 1.8 per cent from 102,821 in the third quarter of 2018 to 104,669 in the fourth quarter. It said during the fourth quarter of last year, the sector recorded 616,528,697 transactions valued at N39.15trillion through electronic payment confirmation.
The report stated that the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Instant Payments transactions dominated the volume of transactions as it recorded 228,209,423 transactions valued at N23.57trillion during the fourth quarter of last year.
A breakdown of credit to the private sector showed that oil and gas with N3.55trillion received the highest credit allocation during the period under review.
This was followed by the manufacturing sector with total loans of N2.23trillion.
The report said, “In terms of credit to the private sector, the total value of credit allocated by the banks stood at N15.13trillion as at Q4, 2018.
“Oil and gas and manufacturing sectors got credit allocation of N3.55trillion and N2.23trillion to record the highest credit allocation as at the period under review.
“As at Q4, 2018, the total number of banks’ members of staff increased by 1.80 per cent quarter on quarter from 102,821 in Q3 2018 to 104,669.”
The real estate sector similarly received a total loan of N622.77bn; finance, insurance and capital market, N1.1tn; education, N57.25billion; Information and Communications Technology.
Also based on the analysis of the report, the agricultural sector received N610.14billion, power and energy, N403.37billion; construction, N614.5billion; trade and general commerce, N1.07trillion; while credit to the government was put at N1.36tn.