Nigerians across 36 states of the federation paid N1.23tn in taxes in 2021, a 19.19 per cent increase from the N1.03tn paid in 2020. This is according to data from the States’ Internally Generated Revenue report by the National Bureau of Statistics released recently.
According to the data, tax revenues accounted for 66.16 per cent of state’s IGR (N1.56tn) in 2020 and 64.88 per cent of N1.89tn in 2021. According to the data, taxes make up a chunk of state revenues.
These taxes included: Pay As You Earn, direct assessment, road taxes, and other taxes paid by residents within a state. While tax revenues have increased year-on-year, states are largely unable to sustain themselves on these revenues and other sources of income.
Most of them continue to rely on federal allocations. In its ‘State of States (2022 edition)’ report, BudgiT, a data firm, said, “Having been inundated with fiscal shocks from the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 which plummeted government revenues, the 36 states of the federation commenced a rebound as the cumulative revenues of the states grew by 9.19 per cent from the N4.69tn earned in 2020 to N5.12tn in 2021.
