The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), has said that the Nigerian manufacturing sector contributed about N864 billion of the N3.63 trillion generated as Value Added Tax (VAT) between 2013 to 2018. The NBS report on Sectoral Distribution of VAT showed that the manufacturing sector’s contribution represented 24 per cent of the total VAT generated within the six-year period. A breakdown of the N3.63 trillion indicated that N481.5 billion was generated in 2013, N493.9 billion in 2014, while N759.4 billion and N777.51 billion were generated in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

According to the report, N972.35 billion and N1.10 trillion were generated as VAT in 2017 and 2018 respectively, with the amount generated in 2018 VAT being the highest in the six-year period. The manufacturing sector has eight sectoral activities among the 28 sectoral categories in the report. The sector’s activities included automobiles and assemblies, breweries, bottling and beverages, as well as chemicals, paints and allied industries. Others are manufacturing, petrochemical and petroleum refineries; pharmaceutical, soaps and toiletries; publishing, printing and paper packaging; and textile and garment industries. For VAT in the six-year period, the automobiles and assemblies contributed N8,691,597,713.42, breweries, bottling and beverages added N192,028,180,262, and chemicals, paints and allied industries accounted for N6,989,648,842.73. Others include manufacturing, N597,005,133,563, petrochemical and petroleum refineries, N37,013,858,414.6, and pharmaceutical, soaps and toiletries providing N7,131,243,714.78 to VAT. Similarly, Publishing, printing, paper packaging contributed N9,685,665,303.04, while textile and garment industry added N5,501,007,456.24 to the VAT in the six-year period. Director General, Nigeria Textile Manufacturers Association, Mr. Hamma Kwajaffa, commended the manufacturing sector’s contribution to VAT, saying there was a correlation between economic growth and VAT revenue. He said that increased contribution of manufacturing sector to VAT, especially in the fourth quarter of 2018, was driven by consumer spending during Christmas season. Kwajaffa urged the Federal Government to improve infrastructure support, fiscal incentives, financing, anti-smuggling activities and implementation of the Executive Order on patronage of locally produced goods. He said that doing these would boost the sector’s performance and invariably its contribution to VAT and Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Source: The Sun

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