The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Wednesday issued Dangote Cement Plc, tax credit certificates worth N22.321 billion.
The Executive Chairman of the FIRS, Muhammad Nami, who presented the certificates to the company in Abuja explained that the Tax credit was for the construction of Apapa-Oworonshoki-Ojota road in Lagos and the Lokoja-Obajana-Kabba Road in Kogi state.
Nami was represented by Coordinating Director, Tax Operations Group, Mr. Femi Oluwaniyi.
He explained that while Julius Berger is handling the construction of the two federal roads, Dangote Cement Plc is providing the funding.
He said to compensate Dangote Cement, the Federal Government issued the company these certificates to cover for the tax that Dangote Cement would have paid.
The tax credit certificates for the Apapa – Oworoshoki – Ojota expressway is valued at N21.6 billion while the tax credit certificate for the Lokoja-Obajana-Kabba expressway is valued at N721 million.
This is the second tax credit certificate the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) will be issuing to Dangote for the Lokoja-Obajana-Kabba road construction.
It had issued a N9.5billion tax credit certificate earlier in 2019 been for the Lokoja-Obajana-Kabba road.
Nami noted that th Federal Government decided to adopt the policy in order to attract provate capital into the construction of infrastructure across the country, saying, “government came to that reasoning that if we could encourage local investors to do the needful and of course under an agreement with some due monitoring and approvals then some of the monies they would have accrued back to government as taxes they would have paid.
“It will be in the interest of the government that other investors, business entrepreneurs, companies take advantage of this key initiative such that Nigeria can develop faster than government would have done alone.
“We are hoping that this arrangement will be taken to another level, we are also believing that this will spur other business players out there to come and take advantage of it”.
Responding in behalf of Dangote Cement Plc, Engr. Ahmed Mansur, Group Executive Director Govenment and Stakeholders Relations said “it is true that the responsibility of providing public services and public facilities like roads and electricity and so on is that of the state but in todays modern state it is not possible to encompass every service that the public requires even if the states have the funds.
“To do it at the same time within the time that the public requires is often not possible and I think it is this kind of thing that has generated the need for the state to engage private actors to participate in the process”.
“While it remains the responsibility of state, the ability of private sectors to also contribute their quota in terms of capacity to execute becomes a huge advantage and it is because of it that when the opportunity was offered by his excellency Mr. President through this EO 07, we jumped at the opportunity”.
Issuing tax credit certificates was made possible by President Muhammadu Buhari’s Executive Order 07 of 2019.
The Order encourages private companies to develop infrastructure that can enhance their service delivery, businesses and be granted tax credit.
