Road Taxes: Nigerians Paid N40.14 Billion in 2023, Says NBS
The Federal Government, through the National Bureau of Statistics, said that Nigerians paid N40.14 billion in road taxes to state governments in 2023. This is against the N24.57 billion collected in 2022, representing a huge increase of 63.36%, and shows how vital road taxes have remained in the finances of states across the country.
Lagos State led the chart with its road tax revenue of N16.74 billion, accounting for 41.7 per cent of the total road tax revenue in spite of recording no revenue the previous year.
This represents a growth of 3,804.32% from the N72.95 million realized in 2022 to N2.85 billion in 2023. Other impressive increases recorded are Rivers State, which grew by 270.66%, collecting N830.01 million against N223.93 million realized the previous year. Collections by Sokoto State rose by 41.22% to N194.66 million, while Yobe State increased by 30.4% to N81.88 million.
While some states, however, reported declines in their road tax collections, Enugu State topped with a disastrous slump of 95.12%, from N1.1 billion in 2022 to a low of N53.47 million in 2023, while Katsina State followed with a decline of 79.34%, collecting a sum of N29.3 million as against N141.81 million in the previous year. Consequently, revenue generated by Niger State plunged 53.41% to N190.49 million from N408.83 million in 2022. The second remarkable slump took place in Cross River, which witnessed collections dwindle by 62.54% from N3.26 billion to N1.22 billion. Surprisingly, the Federal Capital Territory recorded zero revenue from road tax in 2023.
It also noted that states in Nigeria recorded an increase in IGR, with the total sum increasing by 26% from N1.93 trillion in 2022 to N2.43 trillion in 2023.
Corroborating Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the presidential committee on fiscal policy, said the committee has recommended the exemption to the federal government for goods like food, transportation, and housing from taxes.
“We have identified basic necessities of life-food, accommodations, transportation, education, and health-and we have removed almost all applicable taxes, including Value Added Tax, Oyedele said. He added that share-passenger transportation would be completely free of tax, while there would remain a tax on taxi services, implying the technique pursued to bring down the prices of essential commodities and services for Nigerians.