FG, sates get N99.26bn income tax returns from seven banks, others

Indications are rife that a whopping sum of N99.26 billion was paid to the Federal and state generating revenue service agencies as tax income from seven Deposit Money Banks (DMBs); and 15 other firms in the country, between in the first half of 2017 (H1), The Daily Times findings have revealed.

Indeed, checks showed that apart from the seven financial institutions, two industrial companies, four petroleum marketing companies, one conglomerate, one household company and a multinational company were among the total 15 companies paid the sum of N99.26bn.

But not less than 77.4 per cent or N73.5bn of the total revenue was paid by the seven financial institutions, as the Federal Government continued to brace up its policies that will enforce tax payment compliance across the country.

Further checks showed that the 16 firms had paid revenue services agencies N99.9bn between January to June of 2016. United Bank for Africa (UBA) leads in the list of financial institutions tax payment in six months of 2017, followed by Union Bank of Nigeria Plc.

UBA’s paid revenue service N15.19bn in H1 2017, an increase of 98.6 per cent from N7.6bn in H1 2016, while UBN income tax rose by 58.5 per cent to N260 million as against N164m income tax expenses reported in H1 22016.

As Zenith Bank plc’s tax expenses dropped by 8.5 per cent to N16.9bn in H1 2017 from N18.4bn in H1 2016, Guaranty Trust Bank plc’s tax expenses increased by 25 per cent to N17.4bn from N13.9bn reported in half year of 2016.

Other leading financial institution involved include: First Bank of Nigeria, N6.1bn tax expenses; Access Bank Plc, N12.6bn and Stanbic IBTC Holdings paid N5.1bn, as tax expenses to revenue agencies. Dangote Cement Plc and Dangote Sugar Plc reported N11.5bn and N815m as tax expenses between January to June, 2017.

For the petroleum marketing companies, Forte Oil tax expenses closed H1 2017 at N628m from N2bn in H1 2016; while Mobil Oil tax payment dropped by 422 per cent to N1.2bn from N2.09bn reported in H1 2016. Others are, Seplat Petroleum, with N342m tax expenses in H1 2017; and Total Nigeria with N2.7bntax expenses in H1 2017.

However, the last three companies, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Unilever Nigeria Plc and Transcorp’s tax expenses hit N1.16bn from N988.8bn reported between January to June of 2016.

According to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), a total sum of N1.782trn was realized as tax revenue between January and July 2017, an increase of about N224bn from N1.558trn amount collected within the same period in 2016.

As the FG’st agency had set tax revenue targets for 2017 based on the 2016-2018 Medium -Term Revenue Framework amounting to N4.89trn, analysts had expressed that companies are likely to pay more taxes going forward.

Stories by Motolani Oseni