Telcos pay N148bn in taxes in 9 months-NBS

Telecommunications Companies in Nigeria  paid a total of N148 billion as Company Income Tax (CIT)in the first three quarters of 2020, according to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

According to the NBS report, the company income tax from telecoms and professional services represented 23.5 per cent of the total CIT paid to government in the nine-month, which stood at N628.6 billion.

The amount, which also included tax paid by professional services, represented the largest paid by any sector in the period under review.

A breakdown of the payments for the three quarters showed that N28.8 billion was paid as CIT by the companies in the telecoms sector in the first quarter of this year. In the second quarter, N63.8 billion was paid, while payment for the third quarter stood N55.5 billion.

NBS report stated that the Professional Services and Telecoms still generated the highest amount of CIT in the third quarter and closely followed by other manufacturing, which generated N42.03 billion, banks and financial institutions generated N24.05 billion while mining generated the least and closely followed by textile and garment industry and local government councils with N120.93 million, N167.51 million, and N321.72 million generated respectively.