In Six Months, Manufacturers Pay N607bn Tax – NBS

Taxes paid by manufacturers in 2023 increased by 115 per cent from N192bn in the first quarter, to N414.5bn in the second quarter.

A data collated from various Company Income Tax and Value Added Tax reports published by the National Bureau of Statistics revealed.

According to findings, in the first quarter of 2023, manufacturers paid N62.9bn as CIT, while of N129.2bn was paid as Value Added Tax.

In the second quarter, the VAT paid by manufacturers increased by 17 per cent to N151.7bn, while CIT increased to N262.7bn. This meant that manufacturers paid at least N607bn in CIT and VAT in the first six months of the year.

The data also showed that across the VAT and CIT remittances in 2023, the manufacturing sector was the most taxed sector in the first and second quarters of the year.

It was closely followed by the financial services sector and Information Communication Technology.

In its recently released Manufacturers CEOs Confidence Index, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria outlined 20 key macroeconomic issues militating against the performance of the manufacturing sector.

The issues included multiple taxes/charges/levies/ ranked third, only behind energy costs and high cost of credit/inadequacy of loanable funds.

Also, in an en earlier report titled, ‘Special focus: MAN at the receiving end of national debt crisis’, manufacturers had raised the alarm that the Federal Government had resorted to passing the burden of its N77tn debt on the real sector via an aggressive tax regime.

While speaking in an exclusive interview with the PUNCH, the Director-General of MAN, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, said manufacturers had continued to battle over-taxation, alongside other factors that had negatively affected the growth of the industry.