Kano beats entire South East in VAT collection

Kano State collected more money as Value Added Tax (VAT) than the entire South East zone in the first eight months of 2021.

Records of VAT receipts from Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) seen by Daily Trust indicate that the state collected N24.4bn, ahead of the five south-eastern states with accumulated collection of N20bn.

The data further revealed that Kaduna State with N19bn accrual also did better than Akwa Ibom (N9.3bn), Bayelsa (N13bn), Delta (N13bn), Edo (N9bn), and Ogun (N11bn).

For instance, Kaduna’s N19.8bn is higher than the combined collection of Abia, Cross River, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo and Imo.

Read Also:Stop, revert sales of landed property of Yusuf Maitama Sule University- ASUU tells Ganduje

Abia, according to the chart, collected N2.2bn representing 0.22%; Cross River collected N1.9bn or 0.19%; Osun collected N2.07bn or 0.20; Ekiti made N6.2bn or 0.62; Ondo collected N4.8bn or 0.48, while Imo collected 1.01bn or 0.10 %.

Yobe in the North East collected N9.3bn rubbing shoulders with Akwa Ibom (N9.3bn), Edo (N9bn), Ebonyi (N7.2bn) and Ekiti (N6.2bn).

Lagos and the FCT, combined, contribute 65.22% of the total, while all the remaining 35 states contribute 34.78 percent of the total.

This revelation is coming amidst VAT row between the federal government and some states, and allegations that some states, majorly in the North, benefit more than what they contribute to the central pool.

The statics show that Lagos is on top of the chart with 41.5 percent of the total VAT amounting to  N421.2bn while Zamfara collected the least recording, N762.5m or 0.08 percent of the total sum.

Lagos is followed by the FCT which collected N241bn or 23.74 %; Rivers collected N92.3bn or 9.09 % while Oyo followed with N61bn representing 6.01%.

Read Also:Experts unveil road map to address agricultural challenges in Nigeria

Other top performers in the chart are Kano with N24.4bn or 2.40% and Kaduna with N19.8bn or 1.95%.

However, in spite of Zamfara, a state in the North West recording the least performance, more northern States performed better than the southern states as the figure indicated.

Despite the crisis in some of the North East states, the region collected a total of N27.7bn compared to N21bn collected by the south-eastern region of the country.

Exclusive of Lagos, the other South West states collected a total of N85.8bn only while the North East and North West, which have been heavily bedeviled by insurgency and other security challenges, have collected N86.5bn within the same period.

Read Also:Buhari directs MDAs to study NIPSS Report on policy design, implementation

With the exception of Lagos (N421.2bn), Rivers (92.3bn), Oyo (N61bn), Kano (N24bn) and Kaduna (19bn) most states have posted an average performance lower than N10bn.