Nigeria’s Company Tax Receipts hit N392.8bn in Q1, highest in 7 years

In the last seven years, Nigeria’s company income tax has risen by 130.8 percent Ripples Nigeria analysis shows.

Data from the National Bureau Of Statistics(NBS) shows business operating in Nigeria paid the sum of N392.8 billion in the first three months of 2021.

NBS disclosed this in its quarterly report on company income tax by sectors released on Wednesday.

The first quarter of 2021 company tax revenue rose from N170.1 billion recorded in 2015.

In 2016 Q1, (N166.5 billion) was generated, 2017 Q1(N155.9 billion) 2018 Q1(N203.6 billion), 2019 Q1(N232.8 billion), and Q1 2020 CIT was N295.68bn.

Quarter-on-Quarter , Company Income Tax reflected that the sum of N392.77 billion generated in Q1 is higher than N295.72bn generated in Q4 2020.

Breakdown of the company tax generated in first quarter 2021 by sectors shows that Breweries, Bottling and Beverages generated the highest amount of CIT with N23.26bn generated and closely followed by Professional Services including Telecoms which generated N18.17bn, State Ministries & Parastatals generated N17.35bn.

Textile and Garment Industry generated the least and closely followed by Mining and Automobiles and Assemblies with N13.49m, N34.40m and N73.57m generated.

In terms of the increase in sectoral company income tax, the breweries, bottling, and beverages sector recorded an increase of 329.5% year-on-year in Q1 2021 compared to N5.42 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2020. It also increased by 109.3% compared to N11.11 billion recorded in Q4 2020.

While Stevedoring, clearing and forwarding businesses came in second on the list of growth by sectors with N1.6 billion generated as company income tax. This represents a 73.4% increase when compared to N921.92 million recorded in Q1 2020.

It is worthy to note that of the total amounted generated in Q1 2021, N152.33bn was generated as CIT locally while N184.59bn was generated as foreign CIT payment. The balance of N55.85bn was generated as CIT from other payments.

NBS in the report explained that foreign payments are bulk payments from JP Morgan account cannot be attributed to any office or sector, while other payments are payments through E-transact, E-tax pay, and remitta (GIFMIS), that is Government Integrated Financial Management Information System.

Since last year, the Federal Government has been intensifying efforts towards tax revenue collection in Nigeria.

On January 13, 2020, the Finance Act bill was signed into law. The bill is targeted at raising additional revenue for the Government through the introduction of new fiscal measures.

The rate for VAT was increased to 7.5 percent, while CIT 30 percent rate was pegged for large companies (i.e. companies with gross turnover greater than NGN 100 million).