Nigerian states see internal revenue fall 11.7% to N612.87bn in H1’20 on low tax remittances
NIGERIA’S 36 SUBNATIONAL STATES and its federal capital territory (FCT) saw their total internally generated revenue (IGR) fall by 11.7 percent to N612.87 billion in the first six months of 2020 compared to N693.91billion recorded in 2019, recently published data by the National Bureau of Statistics on IGR at state level, has shown.
The decline in the internally generated income in the first half of the year has been attributed to the coronavirus crisis which crippled economic and fiscal activities of government, leading to a nationwide lockdown. The shutdown of businesses brought about low revenue and in turn, low taxes remitted to the government as businesses and employers seek incentives from the government to cushion the attendant effect occasioned by the pandemic.
Breakdown of the NBS data on total IGR available to states in H1 2020
According to the report from the Abuja based statistics office, the pay as you earn (PAYE) tax contributed a total of N418.21 billion, which represents 36.6 per cent of the grand total of N612.87 billion. Also, direct assessment and road taxes contributed N16.39 billion and N12.21 billion, representing 1.4 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively, while other taxes raised during the period accounted for 7.2 per cent or N81.95 billion of the total amount.
Similarly, during the second quarter of 2020, total states and FCT revenue figure hit N259.73 billion compared to N353.14 billion recorded in the first three months of 2020, and indicates a negative growth of -26.5 per cent on a quarter on quarter comparison.
FCT, 36 States and the amount generated internally
Lagos State posted the highest internally generated revenue with 33.37 per cent or N204.51 billion of the total recorded in H1 2020; and was closely followed by Rivers State with N64.59 billion or 10.54 per cent, while FCT, Delta and Ogun states joined the log of states with the largest shares as they generated N35.21 billion (5.74 per cent), N30.84 billion (5.03 per cent) and N23.68 billion (3.86 per cent), respectively.
On the other hand, Jigawa State recorded the least internally generated revenue during the first half of the year with N3.01 billion or 0.49 per cent of the total, this was followed by Ekiti state as the second bottom on the log with N3.21 billion (0.52 per cent), while Adamawa, Gombe and Yobe states followed suit with N3.75 billion (0.61 per cent), N3.79 billion (0.62 per cent) and N3.92 billion (0.64 per cent) respectively.
Percentage of IGR growth and declines by states in two halves comparisons
A further examination of the data revealed that only 11 states recorded growth in their internally generated revenue for the period under review (H1 2020) when compared to the corresponding period of 2019. They include Gombe (81.5%), Yobe (77.8%), Ebonyi (61.7%), Borno (37.3%), Oyo (26.4%), Taraba (24.1%), Nasarawa (21.9%), Katsina (15.2%),Enugu (14.6%), Kogi (11.2%) and Anambra (9.9%).
Conversely, Sokoto (61.9%), Niger (56%), Benue (55.9%), Cross River (51.9%) and Jigawa (44%) states led the top sub-national governments with the largest de- cline in their internally generated revenue (IGR) for the first half of 2020, when compared to the corresponding half of 2019.