FIRS collects N1tn VAT in six months, says NBS

• FIRS to appeal judgment stopping collection in Rivers

The National Bureau of Statistics says the Federal Inland Revenue Service generated N1 trillion from Value Added Tax (VAT) in six months even as the FIRS vows to appeal the ruling that voided its jurisdiction on VAT collection.

A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt on Monday declared that Rivers, not the FIRS, should collect VAT, and Personal Income Tax (PIT) in Rivers State.

The NBS said the FIRS raked in N512.25 billion in the second half as against the N496.36 billion it generated from VAT in the first quarter.

The revenue is N185.05b higher than the N327.20 billion generated by the Service in the corresponding period of last year.

The sectoral distribution of VAT data for Q2 2021, indicated a 3.20 per cent increase on Quarter-on-Quarter and 56.56 per cent rise Year-on-Year.

According to the NBS, the manufacturing sectors generated the highest VAT with N44.89 billon, tailed by professional services’ N29.30 billion.

The NBS report said commercial and trading generated N21.96 billion; textile and garment industry realised the least and closely followed by pioneering and pharmaceutical,  soaps and toiletries yielding N77.74 million, N169 million and N188.71 million respectively.

The report shows that out of the revenue generated in Q2 2021, N187.43 billion was generated as non-import VAT locally; N207.69 billion as non-import VAT for foreign.

It said the remaining N117.13 billion came in as NCS-import VAT.

On who should collect VAT, the FIRS said it will challenge the court ruling stripping it of powers to collect VAT and PIT in the South-South state.

The Value Added Tax Act states that “tax shall be administered and managed by the FIRS Board.

The board, the Act stated, “may do such things as it may deem necessary and expedient for the assessment and collection of the tax and shall account for all amounts so collected in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

It notes that “a taxable person shall on supplying taxable goods or services to his accredited distributor, agent, client or consumer, as the case may be, collect the tax on those goods or services at the rate specified in section 2 of this Act.

The Act also stipulates that “a taxable person shall render to the Board, on or before the 21st day of the month following that in which the purchase or supply was made, a return of all taxable goods and services purchased or supplied by him during the preceding month in such manner as the Board may, from time to time, determine.

“A person who imports taxable goods into Nigeria shall render to the Board returns on all the taxable goods imported by him into Nigeria. In this regard, any payment made to duly authorised government agents shall be deemed to have been made to the FIRS.”

The Act proposes FIRS chairman; FIRS directors and legalm adviser; a director in the Nigerian Customs Service and three representatives of the state governments as members of the Joint Tax Board (JTB).

The distribution of VAT revenue is carried out as 15 per cent to the federal, 50 per cent states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and 35 per cent to the 774 local government areas.