Business

FIRS seeks law to introduce road tax

Published

3 years ago

August 19, 2021 10:09 am

BodexNG

Mohammed Nami, executive chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), says a proposal has been sent to the federal government for a law on road tax.

Nami said this yesterday at an interactive session organised by the house of representatives committee on finance on the 2022-2024 medium term expenditure framework/fiscal strategy paper (MTEF/FSP) for ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in Abuja.

This is coming days after the federal government approved a new policy for tollgates across the country.

At the public hearing on Wednesday, Afolabi Olalekan, a member of the committee from Osun state, asked Nami to explain what FIRS has put in place to tackle tax evasion by people in the informal sector.

“What is your agency doing to extend your tax drive to the informal sector. Because I believe the informal sector is a veritable area where we can get a lot of money, especially this period that the county is relying on borrowing to finance budget deficit,” he asked.

Responding, Nami said FIRS is working on several measures to ensure that the informal sector pay taxes to the federal government.

He said one of the measures include the introduction of road tax.

Nami said when FIRS and the federal government finalises the framework on road tax, the proposed legislation would be sent to the national assembly.

“What we have done on the informal sector at a time was try to propose what we call a presumptive tax to the national assembly, but in the course of doing that we face a bit of challenge and we did not submit the proposal yet, simply because we discover that there is an act of the national assembly that exempted businesses with a turnover of about N1 to N25 million,” he said.

“So if you already have that, you can find it difficult to say come and pay presumptive tax. Presumptive tax is a tax that we just give you form to say based on your own estimate, how much have you generated this year and you say 12 million, then we say pay maybe six percent of that 12 million and you go because you are not an organised sector.

“But there is a law which has exempted every business with a turnover of N1 and N25 million so you find it difficult to implement such a thing.

“The second thing we are doing of which we have already done is to create a department called intelligence, strategic data-mining and analysis department; which the only thing these young boys and girls do on a daily basis is just to gather intelligence on companies and particularly these informal sector, analyse them and then escalate those gap that they identify for the purpose of tax assessment and tax collection.

“Number three thing we are thinking of, and we will surely come back to the national assembly on that, is to introduce road taxes.

Road tax is necessary because all over the world there is no way we would see people that will use roads for free.

“As is it today, even if you are able to give an entire N10 trillion to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it will not be able to fix the roads in Nigeria, just the roads in Nigeria alone.

“So what we have decided to do is to propose the introduction of road taxes to the federal government through our special tax operations department so that at least 50 trucks that would be plying these roads for free at any given point in time, comes across a toll gate or probably somewhere that we are going to use electronic device to collect it without necessarily erecting toll gate.

“We are aware that the owners of these trucks, they don’t pay anything to the government, they don’t get the FIRS certificate.

So up to 15 or 20 trucks that will ply the road that is built with personal income tax that I pay and you pay and then they don’t pay taxes. That is what we want to identify.”

Business

UBA to raise N239bn through rights issue to expand lending capacity

Published

17 hours ago

November 16, 2024 2:23 pm

BodexNG

The United Bank for Africa (UBA) says it will raise N239.4 billion through a rights issue to existing shareholders.

According to a statement on Thursday, the bank is offering a rights issue of 6.83 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N35 per share.

The financial institution said the offering, opened on November 15, gives existing shareholders the opportunity to buy additional shares in proportion to their current holdings and is being offered based on one new ordinary share for every five existing ordinary shares held by shareholders, as of November 5.

Speaking to shareholders, Tony Elumelu, group chairman of UBA, said the rights issue is the first step in its broader capital-raising programme.

“UBA’s rights issue aims to raise N239.4 billion, through the issuance of new Ordinary Shares to our shareholders,” Elumelu said.

“The primary objective of this Rights Issue is to further strengthen our capacity to take advantage of growth opportunities and sustain our leadership in the banking industry.”

Elumelu said beyond regulatory compliance, the funds would expand UBA’s lending capacity, investment in digital infrastructure, support sustainable business practices, and expand its African operations.

The group chairman also highlighted how UBA is driving economic growth across Africa.

“Our historic partnership with the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, where UBA pledged up to US$6 billion in financing over the next three years to support eligible SMEs across Africa underscores our commitment to fostering economic development,” he added.

The businessman also said the issuance complies with the revised minimum capital requirements for Nigerian commercial banks announced by the apex banking regulator in Nigeria — the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) earlier this year.

In April, UBA sought shareholders’ approval at the company’s 62nd annual general meeting (AGM) to raise capital.

The development followed the CBN’s directive to commercial banks with international licences to raise their capital base to N500 billion, pegging the capital requirement for national and regional financial institutions at N200 billion and N50 billion, respectively.

Business

FBN Holdings to change brand name to First Holdco

Published

23 hours ago

November 16, 2024 7:54 am

BodexNG

First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Holdings Plc says shareholders have approved its plan to change the company’s name to First Holdco Plc.

In a notice on Friday, Adewale Arogundade, the company secretary, said the decision was approved by shareholders at its 12th annual general meeting held virtually on Thursday.

According to the company, the change will be extended to all subsidiaries.

“That there should be a change of the legal and brand names of the Company from FBN Holdings Plc and FBNHoldings to First Holdco Plc and FirstHoldco, respectively,” FBN Holdings said.

“That the change of legal and brand names should be extended to the subsidiaries of FBN Holdings Plc

“That the directors be and are hereby authorised to perform all such other acts and do all such other things as may be necessary to give effect to the above resolutions, including, without limitation, complying with the directives of any regulatory authority.

“That upon completion of the processes for the change of name, Increase of the Company’s share capital and allotment of the new ordinary shares in accordance with the resolutions above, the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Company be amended as necessary to reflect the Company’s new legal name and Issued share capital.”

Business

Nigeria’s inflation rate rises to 33.8% as food prices’ surge persists

Published

2 days ago

November 15, 2024 2:10 pm

BodexNG

The National Bureau of Statistics says Nigeria’s inflation rate was 33.88 percent in October — up from 32.7 percent in September.

The data is captured in the NBS’ latest consumer price index (CPI) report for October published on Friday.

The CPI measures the rate of change in prices of goods and services.

The data bureau said the headline inflation rate in October rose by “1.18% points when compared to the September 2024 headline inflation rate”.

“On a year-on-year basis, the Headline inflation rate was 6.55% points higher than the rate recorded in October 2023 (27.33%),” NBS said.

“This shows that the Headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in October 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., October 2023).

“Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in October 2024 was 2.64%, which was 0.12% higher than the rate recorded in September 2024 (2.52%).

“This means that in October 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level was higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in September 2024.”

‘INCREASE IN RICE, YAM PUSHED FOOD INFLATION RATE TO 39.16%’

The NBS also said the food inflation rate in October surged to 39.16 percent, compared to 33.77 percent in September.

On a year-on-year basis, the food inflation rate was 7.64 percent higher compared to the rate recorded in October 2023 (31.52 percent).

“The rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of the following items: guinea corn, rice, maize grains, etc (Bread and Cereals Class), Yam, Water Yam, Coco Yam, etc (Potatoes, Yam & Other Tubers Class), Palm Oil, Vegetable Oil, etc (Oil and Fats Class) and Milo Lipton, Bourvita, etc (Coffee, Tea & Cocoa Class),” the bureau added.

The statistics firm also said the month-on-month food inflation rate in October was 2.94 percent, showing a rise of 0.3 percent compared to the 2.64 percent recorded in September.

“The rise can be attributed to the rate of increase in the average prices of Palm Oil, Vegetable oil, etc (Oil & Fats Class), Mudfish, Croaker (Apo), Fresh fish (Obokun), etc (Fish Class), Dried Beef, Goat Meat, Mut-ton, Skin meat, etc (Meat Class), and Bread, Guinea Corn flour, Plantain flour, Rice, etc (Bread and Cereals Class),” the NBS said.

“The average annual rate of food inflation for the twelve months ending October 2024 over the previous twelve-month average was 38.12%, which was an 11.79% point increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in October 2023 (26.33%).”

Bodex F. Hungbo, SPMIIM is a multiple award-winning Nigerian Digital Media Practitioner, Digital Strategist, PR consultant, Brand and Event Expert, Tv Presenter, Tier-A Blogger/Influencer, and a top cobbler in Nigeria.

She has widespread experiences across different professions and skills, which includes experiences in; Marketing, Media, Broadcasting, Brand and Event Management, Administration and Management with prior stints at MTN, NAPIMS-NNPC, GLOBAL FLEET OIL AND GAS, LTV, Silverbird and a host of others