National Bureau of Statistics said in its report that the sectoral distribution of Value Added Tax (VAT) data for H1 2020 showed that the sum of N651.77 billion was generated as VAT in the first six months of 2020 as against the N600.98 billion generated in the first half of 2019. This represents 8.45 per cent growth Year-on-Year. According to NBS report “Professional Services generated the highest amount of VAT with N95.92 billion generated and closely followed by Other Manufacturing generating N67.63 billion, Commercial and Trading generating N31.10 billion while Mining generated the least and closely followed by Textile and Garment Industry and Pharmaceutical, Soaps and Toiletries with N127.58 million, N499.19 million and N648.78 million generated respectively.
Out of the total amounted generated in the first half of 2020, N335.82 billion was generated as Non-Import VAT locally while N161.74 billion was generated as Non-Import VAT for foreign. The balance of N154.21 billion was generated as NCS-Import VAT. NBS data showed that Nigeria generated a total sum of N327.1 billion revenue from Value Added Tax (VAT) in the second quarter of 2020, up by 0.81 per cent when compared to N324.58 billion in first quarter of 2020. Overall, twenty-one out of the twenty-eight sectors recorded declines in VAT remittances in second quarter of 2020, a significant decline which may be largely attributed to the COVID-19 induced lockdown across the country during the period. In Q2 2020, the biggest decline in VAT remittance was from hotel and catering service with a 45.5% drop in VAT remittance from N2.52 billion received in Q1 2020 to N1.36 billion at the end of Q2 2020. Also, the manufacturing sector recorded a 19% decline in VAT remittance from N37.3 billion in Q1 2020 to N30.2 billion. Expectedly, VAT earning from oil marketing plugged 18.8%, while oil production dropped by 7.4%. Other critical sectors that recorded declines in VAT earnings in Q2 2020 include Automobiles (-30%), Breweries (-27.3%),
