Darasimi Adebisi
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and other tax authorities in countries where Nigerian banks operate, generated a total of N450.2billion as tax income from six Domestic- Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) in three years, a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed.
These six D-SIBs are GTCO Plc (formally Guaranty Trust Bank), Zenith Bank Plc, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated Plc, FBN Holdings Plc, Access Bank Plc, and United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc.
Banks in Nigeria are required by law to remit tax income to state and federal government agencies where they have branches.
Aside paying statutory rate of 30 per cent of total profit as company’s income tax, banks are meant to pay Education Tax, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Tax and Nigeria Police Trust Fund levy.
The report revealed that tax paid to FIRS and other revenue agencies by the D-SIBs dropped significantly in 2020, majorly caused by COVID-19 pandemic.
Specifically, tax income by these six D-SIBs in 2020 was N142.2billion, about 15.05per cent drop from N17.39billion in 2019.
A further interrogation of the NBS report revealed that the banks, in 2018, remitted N140.61billion as income tax to FIRS, among other revenue-generating agencies in states and jurisdictions where they have branches.
The National Bureau of Statistics in its report also disclosed that Banks & Financial Institutions in 2020 paid N140.08billion as company income tax, a 1.83 per cent drop from N142.69billion reported in 2019.
In 2018, NBS reported N96.4billion income tax paid by banks & other financial institutions in the country.
THISDAY reliable gathered that GTCO, Zenith Bank and ETI are the leading banks in terms of tax income remittances, amid growing profit generation in 2020.
In the last three years, ETI’s income tax increased to N116.53billion, while that of GTCO and Zenith Bank was N102.37billion and N93.96billion, respectively.UBA’s income tax between 2020 and 2018 was N68.45billion, as Access Bank paid a total of N45.99billion income tax to FIRS, among other revenue generating agencies.In addition, FBN Holdings in the chart paid a sum of N22.9billion as income tax between 2020 and 2018. As regards 2020 financial year, four D-SIBs reported decline in income tax amid increasing deferred tax liabilities.EIT’s income tax dropped by 30.05 per cent in 2020 to N34.13billion from N48.8billion reported in 2019 while Zenith Bank tax expenses moved to N25.3billion in 2020, a 26.57 decline from N34.45 billion reported in 2019.FBN Holding plc also reported 12.2 per cent drop […]
