…As compensation for fixing Federal roads
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has issued Dangote Cement Plc tax credit certificates valued at ₦22.321billion.
The tax credit certificates are for the construction of Apapa-Oworonshoki-Ojota road in Lagos, and Lokoja-Obajana-Kabba road connecting Kogi and Kwara states.
While Julius Berger is handling the construction of the two Federal roads, Dangote Cement Plc is providing the funding.
The gesture compensates for the tax that Dangote Cement would have paid.
The Executive Chairman of FIRS, Muhammad Nami, represented by Coordinating Director, Tax Operations Group, Mr. Femi Oluwaniyi, gave the clarification in Abuja on Wednesday when he presented the two tax credit certificates to Dangote Cement.
The tax credit certificates for the Apapa-Oworoshoki-Ojota expressway is valued at ₦21.6 billion while the tax credit certificate for the Lokoja-Obajana-Kabba expressway is valued at ₦721 million.
This is the second tax credit certificate the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) will issue to Dangote for the Lokoja-Obajana-Kabba road construction.
Earlier in 2019, about ₦9.5billion tax credit certificate was awarded to Dangote Cement Plc for the Lokoja-Obajana-Kabba road.
Oluwaniyi said: “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”.