KWIRS

KWIRS generated N9.5bn n Q1

by with No Comment finance

KWIRS generated N9.5bn n Q1, to address tax default in informal sector

Shade Omoniyi, the Chairman, Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS), has announced that the Revenue Board generated N9,598,504,939.90 in the first quarter of 2021, crediting the feat on effective adoption of technology and steady blockage of leakages within the tax administration system

READ MORE: MSMEs Contribute Over 50% Of Nigeria’s GDP, 80% Employment ― FG

She however noted that the Agency intends to broaden its tax collection base by deploying IT solutions in capturing and profiling eligible taxpayers in the informal sector of the state.

Omoniyi, who made the disclosure in Ilorin, the State capital, stated that the figure is the highest ever revenue captured in the same period since the inception of the Tax Agency, saying the estimates represented 30% of projected revenue for the year 2021.

“This is why we are taking the initiative of identifying our taxpayers through several means such as the use of ticketing model. This is especially so with the transport sector in the state.

“This feat of KWIRS in Q1, 2021 was a great improvement over the N6, 227,099,973.42 raked in, in the last quarter of 2020”, she said.

SOURCE

FG Zainab Ahmed

FG Admits Revenues Crashing, Says Nigeria Faces Hard Times

by with No Comment financeNews

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, on Monday admitted that Nigeria’s economy was facing a difficult time, saying states must improve their internally generated revenues.

READ ALSO: FBNQuest Recommends Commercial Papers and Bonds as Stable Funding Sources for SMEs and Corporates

Ahmed, who stated this in an interview on a daily breakfast show on the Nigerian Television Authority, Good Morning Nigeria, stated that the money shared at the March  Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting was short of N50bn.

The minister was speaking on a controversy generated by a claim by the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, that the Central Bank of Nigeria printed N60bn in March to augment the money shared at March FAAC.

But the minister and the CBN Governor last week dismissed Obaseki’s claim.

In the interview on the NTA on Monday, the finance minister stated the country’s economy was stabilising from the recession, which the country exited a few months ago.

She, however, added, “These are very difficult challenging times because revenues are low and the demand for expenditures are very high understandably because we have to keep intervening to make sure the pandemic is contained as well as the economic impact it has caused.

“In our case in Nigeria, the crash of the crude oil prices really hit us very hard in terms of revenue. We have very low revenues, we have very high expenditures. What we have done so far is just to provide some stability to make sure salaries are paid, pensions are received every month;  that we send funds to the judiciary and the legislature; that we meet our debt service obligations.

“That’s what we are doing. It also means we have had to borrow more than we have planned before the COVID-19 started because we need to still continue to invest in infrastructure using our national budget. We borrowed to invest in key projects such as roads, rail, airports, seaports and several other investments that are required in health and in education and upgrading the social standards and quality of life of our people and Nigeria is not unique as several countries of the world went into recession.

“Almost every other country has had to borrow more than it planned. It means we expanded our economy deficit very fast in 2020. 2021 is a year that we see as the year of recovery.”

According to him, government hopes to achieve a growth of three percent in 2021, adding that some of the multilateral institutions are putting it at 2.5 percent.

She stated,  “It is a very difficult time. I can explain to you how difficult it is, not just for the Federal Government but also for the states. We see increasing reductions in our FAAC revenues; FAAC revenues are the revenues that we put together every month, that are collected from both oil and non-oil sectors from the collection of the NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) the FIRS (the Federal Inland Revenue Service) and all other revenues collection agencies.

“ So, FAAC reduces and whenever FAAC reduces, it is a very difficult situation and in the past one year, we have tried to fall back on some specific accounts that are meant to be saved; savings that when you have such a situation, you fall back on the resources and augment.

“So, we take funds based on Mr President’s approval either from Excess Crude or Stabilisation Account or in some cases, President approved for us to take funds from LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) dividends. In the month of March, we had a shortfall of FAAC that was about N50bn; we didn’t have enough accrued in any of those accounts other than some N8.5bn that we took from exchange rate differential account so we added that and we ended up with the FAAC of N605bn.

“An average FAAC that is healthy for us is N650bn, so it means we had a shortfall of about N50bn. The states to be honest wanted us to go and borrow from the central bank to augment FAAC.”

She stated that advice by states was rejected, adding that the three levels of government were asked to manage what was available.

“So, it was very surprising when we had a sitting governor saying that the CBN had printed money for FAAC. That was very unfortunate because it was not true. The FAAC information is published so you can see the revenue contributed by each of the agency; that is what we shared.

READ MORE

FIRS

FIRS: States Mull Digital Tax Technology As Revenue Shortfalls Hit 40%

by with No Comment Businessfinance

Heads of Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) of the 36 states of the federation on Monday gathered in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, to consider ways of adapting new technology and Innovations available to improve revenue collection in their various states.

READ ALSO: Dangote Commits $700m To Sugar Production

The new development is prompted by the findings by the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) that tax collected from contact-intensive taxes fell by an average of 40 per cent across all states in Nigeria during the period of the lockdown.

The Secretariat of the Forum organized a programme tagged: NGF’s Technology and Tax event to help facilitate the scale up of modern, taxpayer-friendly, and technology-driven revenue administrations in all States of the federation that will be capable of providing world-class services; characterized by efficient, paperless operations, and equipped with ICT-enabled risk-based enforcement capable of optimising their revenue mobilization strategies.

Director General of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum Secretariat, Asishana Bayo Okauru hinted that the figure was the outcome of research conducted by the Secretariat last year.

He said the result was a big lesson which exposed the criticality of internet-based business support systems and payment platforms for the automation of all back-end operational processes and payments across all revenue streams.

Okauru also noted that the lessons learnt from the research showed that most contact-intensive taxes are at risk, adding that all revenue administrations need to move to a digital future.

“Lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic have pointed to one direction – that all revenue administrations need to move to a digital future.

“Specifically for tax authorities, one big lesson that we have learnt is the criticality of internet-based business support systems and payment platforms for the automation of all back-end operational processes and payments across all revenue streams.

“From our research last year, we already know that most contact-intensive taxes are at risk, given the lessons we learnt during the period of the lockdown where taxes collected from contact-intensive taxes fell by an average of 40 per cent across all States in Nigeria.

“Coupled with a weak environment for tax policy and tax legitimacy, low technological integration in tax administration has undermined efforts to mobilise domestic revenues in the country.

“This has undermined the capacity of tax authorities to collect taxes efficiently and the ability of taxpayers to meet their tax responsibilities conveniently” he said.

Also speaking, Mohammad Nami, the Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), stressed the need to look inwards on how to improve the revenue of the states to augment the shortfall of allocations from the Federation Account, insisted that taxation all over the world has always been the most reliable and sustainable source of government revenue if well harnessed and effectively administered.

Nami regretted that the reliance on oil revenue in the previous years has exposed the country to huge revenue challenges and resulted in poor budget implementation across the three tiers of government.

READ MORE

ports revenue

N538bn ports revenue shows private sector can generate more for govt

by with No Comment Business

N538bn ports revenue shows private sector can generate more for govt

The Nigerian government is in dire need of money, and while it remains uncomfortable with letting the private sector run its business interests, evidence points to the need to let go.

READ ALSO: Foreign VCs dominate in Nigeria As local investors…

Allowing private capital to stimulate the economy as seen in recent developments from concessioned ports can generate more money for the government than it can do on its own.

Last week, the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) said that private sector fiscal contribution to the port and the Federal Government increased to over N538 billion within 11 years of port concession from 2006 to 2017.

These were monies collected from commencement fees, lease fees, throughput fees, tax payments by the concessionaires as well as revenue put into infrastructure development, and investment on equipment.

A breakdown of the revenue shows that the Federal Government collected N5.68 billion as commencement fees, N196.48 billion as lease fees, N61.45 billion as throughput fees, N67.77 billion as tax payment while the private entities investment in infrastructure and equipment stood at N66.6 billion and N139.9 billion, respectively.

Jonathan Nicol, president of the Shippers Association of Lagos State, reiterated the need for the private sector to take the lead in various sectors of the economy.

He called on the government to take advantage of private sector financing in building infrastructure, especially at this time when the financial capability of the government is dwindling due to unstable prices of crude oil, Nigeria’s mainstay.

READ MORE

Dangote-Cement2

Dangote Cement Enters Trillion Earners’ Club With 15.9% Revenue Growth.

by with No Comment BusinessNews

Dangote Cement Group has grown its revenue by 15.9 percent in 2020, crossing over to the trillion league with its earnings that surged to N1.034 trillion in 2020 from N891.671 billion in 2019.

READ ALSO: Registration for FG’s MSME survival fund to open Monday

The cement company in its 2020 financials show that its Gross profit rose to N596.226 billion up from N511.682 billion, representing a 16.5 percent growth.


Administrative expense climbed to N60. 339 billion from N54.124 billion, while Production cost of sales stands at N437,970 billion up from N379.989 billion. Also Selling and distribution expenses is at N153.719 billion.


The Profit from operating activities fell from N386. 734 billion to N276.068 billion for the year after an Income tax Expense of N97.24 billion was deducted.

Dangote Cement’s profit after tax (PAT) of N276.068 billion soared from N200.521 billion it posted in 2019, which indicated a 37.7 percent appreciation, profit before tax rose by 49 percent, leaping from N250.479 billion the previous year to N373. 310 billion in the year in review.


According to the 2020 statements, the company’s Total Assets are put at N2.022 trillion, jumping from N1.742 trillion, a 16.1 percent growth. However, its Equity fell by 0.77 percent to stand at N890. 970 billion down from N897.937 billion.

Its Liabilities outstripped Assets by rising by 33.9 percent to stand at N1.131 trillion from N844.500 billion in the corresponding year.

According to the Financials, Property, plant and equipment stand at N1.390 trillion, while its share capital remains at N8.520 billion same as 2019.


Also, the company’s earnings per share, basic and diluted moved to N16.14 Kobo up from N11. 79 Kobo it posted in the previous year. It generated N720 billion of the revenue from its operations in Nigeria, while about N320 billion from the offshore operation.


The report also revealed that sales volume from its products rose by 8.9 per cent, while its net cash flow of N511.89 billion from its operating activities soared from N426.12 billion in 2019.

Dangote Cement also proposed a dividend payout of N16 per share, this is while disclosing a tax charge of N97 billion for the financial year ended 31st December 2020. A tax charge represents an increase of N50 billion recorded in 2019.
Dangote Cement’s Nigerian operations during the period sold 15.9Mt for the full year 2020, compared to 14.1Mt in 2019. This includes both cement and clinker sales. Looking at the domestic sales alone, Nigerian operations sold 15.6Mt. Revenues for the Nigerian operations came in at N720.0 billion, owing to demand in the domestic market.


This volume growth was enhanced by a successful innovative national consumer promotion “Bag of Goodies – Season 2” and lower rains in the third quarter compared to the previous year.

Dangote Cement posted a record high Pan-African EBITDA of N71.3 billion. Within the period under review, the cement group commissioned its gas power plant in Tanzania. Group earnings per share were N16.14.

READ MORE