Finance minister returns withholding tax to 5%

Apparently determined to shore up government’s revenue, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has revoked the reduction of withholding tax for construction related activities.

The withholding tax for construction related companies, including survey, was reduced from 5% to 2.5% by former Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in 2014.

The new rate will however not take effect until it is officially published in the Federal Government Official Gazette.

Read also: Nigerian militants upsetting our economy, Ghana laments

Government has been under financial pressures in recent times since revenue from oil and gas has dwindled partly due to the crash of prices in the international market and renewed insurgency in the oil rich Niger Delta Region.

The continued attacks on oil and gas installations in the region, reports say, has reduced Nigeria’s crude production by over 800,000 barrels per day.

It would also be recalled that the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, early in the year said it was targeting a revenue of N4.957 trillion in 2016, most of which is expected to come from non-oil collection.

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