The Nigerian government has so far raked in over N40 billion from value added tax across the country.

The revelation was made on Thursday at a monthly meeting of the National economic Council, presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

Addressing State House Correspondents at the end of the meeting, Jigawa Satte Governor, Abubakar Badaru said: “We were briefed by the Chairman of the Federal Inland revenue Service, Babatunde Fowler, who said so far, from January to date, about N40 billion was remitted form the states thus, having a significant increase compared to what was remitted last year. The Governors and Finance commissioners of the 36 states were fully briefed on how to boost revenues.”

Outstanding Remittances
The Jigawa State Governor also disclosed that the state governments was yet to remit more of such taxes, about N41 billion collected form contractors on behalf of the federal government.

“The Chairman of the Revenue Service also notified us that there is value added tax that is being collected by the states, where there is an outstanding of about N41 billion, collected form contractors, which he believes the states will have to pay into the coffers of the federal government.

The Council was informed of a new technique and system being put in place to aid an automatic collection of both VAT and withholding tax, as and when the contractors are paid,” the Governor stated.

Badaru further said the states expressed their willingness to pay the outstanding as well as queue into the new platform, which will henceforth automatically transmit revenues to the Federal Inland Revenue Service.