Dangote cement, MTN Nigeria, 3 banks report N93.23bn Income tax in Q1
By Uthman Salami
Dangote Cement Plc, MTN Nigeria Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTBank) paid Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), among others a total of N93.23billion as income tax in first quarter (Q1) ended March 31, 2021, 25 per cent increase over N74.39billion reported in first quarter of 2020.
Companies in the country are to pay 30 per cent income tax having more than N100 million turnover for a certain period of time.
Our correspondent gathered that Dangote cement in the country is the only company with huge proportion of income tax payment to FIRS and state governments where its plants are located.
The cement producing company in Q1 2021 paid an income tax of N40.39 billion, 47.1per cent increase over N27.47billion reported in Q1 2020.
The Africa’s largest cement producer had reported N97 billion income tax in 2020 from N50billion in 2019, to remain a major contributor to the economy.
A telecommunication giant, MTN Nigeria also reported 16.2 per cent increase in income tax to N29.24billion in Q1 2021 from N25.16billion reported in Q1 2020.
However, among the three big banks in the country, GTBank in Q1 2021 reported N8.14billion income tax from N8.14billion in Q1 2020 while Zenith Bank income tax dropped by 3.63 per cent to N7.96billion reported in Q1 2021 from N8.26billion reported in Q1 2020.
In addition, Access Bank reported income tax of N7.5billion in Q1 2021, 39.9 per cent growth from N5.36billion reported in Q1 2020.
Stakeholders in the sector have expressed dissatisfaction with multiple income tax by the federal, state and local governments’ agencies eroding business expansion and profitability.
However, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had sectoral distribution of Company Income Tax data for Q4 2020 reflected that the sum of N295.72billion was generated as CIT in Q4 2020 as against N416.01billion generated in Q3 2020 and N362.01billion generated in Q4 2019 representing -28.91 per cent decrease Quarter-on-Quarter and -18.31per cent decrease Year-on-Year.
Professional Services including Telecoms generated the highest amount of CIT with N32.17billion generated and closely followed by Other Manufacturing generating N25.64billion, Commercial and Trading generating N19.41billion while Textile and Garment industry generated the least and closely followed by Mining and Local Government Councils with N104.37million, N136.99million, and N298.73million generated respectively.
Out of the total amount generated in Q4 2020, N162.00billion was generated as CIT locally while N63.52billion was generated foreign CIT payment. The balance of N70.20billion was generated as CIT from other payments.
