Telecommunications firm, MTN Nigeria has said it paid a total of N757.6 billion to all government agencies including the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) last year.
According to the company, while the FIRS collected a total of N6.4 trillion tax revenue in 2021, MTN Nigeria paid a total of N618.7 billion in direct and indirect taxes to the FIRS in the tax year, representing approximately 13.5 per cent of the total FIRS collection for the year.
For this feat, the company was recognised with two awards at the recently concluded National Tax Dialogue Event organised by the FIRS. At the event, MTN was applauded as the most tax-compliant organisation and a top 20 taxpayer in Nigeria for the 2021 tax year.
The company in a statement released yesterday, said these awards reflect MTN Nigeria's remarkable performance in remittance of its taxes despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.
Commenting on the recognition, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of MTN Nigeria, who received the awards on behalf of the company, said “I am delighted at our performance and recognition at this year's National Tax Dialogue event. While the past 24 months have been challenging for our country and nations worldwide, we are committed to supporting the Federal Government's ongoing Economic Growth Recovery Plan (EGRP)."
"We will continue to invest heavily in network expansion with a focus on expanding access to under-served communities. We also plan to connect an additional 2,000 rural communities in 2022," he added.
Speaking at the event, the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said the dialogue was designed to engage stakeholders in the Nigerian tax space in meaningful discourse to glean information, ideas, and experience to aid policy formulation and improve the tax environment.
According to the Minister, the other tax revenue objectives are "to institutionalise a healthy tax culture among Nigerians. The right attitude towards taxation will enable every Nigerian to become a co-guardian of the tax system and the commonwealth.
In addition, this will create a participatory system of taxation whereby the taxpayers and other stakeholders understand and accept that they have an equal stake in the tax system."
The Chairman FIRS, Muhammad Nani, thanked the President for his directive to government agencies enabling FIRS to connect to their ICT systems, noting that this singular pronouncement softened the ground for the Service to roll out its system for the seamless acquisition of data.
"We are confident that by the time all the agencies achieve 100 percent compliance with the President's directive, Nigeria shall be the envy of other countries for tax compliance and domestic tax revenue mobilisation," he said.
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