Results by the seventeen companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) show that tax remittances to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and tax authorities in the other countries they operate in, increased in the last year by 39%, going from 371.56 billion naira at the end of 2020 to 589.6 billion in 2021. Leading this list are cement manufacturing companies, telecoms, petroleum marketing companies.
Dangote Cement paid the most tax with N173.93 billion for the financial year, increasing from N78.86 billion reported in 2020. MTN Nigeria follows with N138.03billion in 2021, 47% more than it paid in 2020.
In Nigeria, companies are required to remit tax income to federal and state government agencies. Apart from the statutory 30% of the companies’ total profit as income tax, they’re also expected to contribute to the Tertiary Education Tax, 0.005% to the Nigeria Police Trust Fund Levy and 1% to the National Information Technology Development Agency.
Previously, Nigerian Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed had revealed that the country was being owed around N8trillion in unpaid Value Added Tax.
“Also, from its analysis of tax evasion and tax avoidance linked to corruption, NFIU has identified N3,909,707,678,112.43 in VAT and N3,737,918,335,785.82 in Withholding Tax due to the Government. NFIU has also sent 1,165 intelligence reports on cases of corruption, money laundering and other serious offences to 27 domestic agencies for investigation, prosecution and asset recovery,” the Minister said at the time.
