Companies in Nigeria have started embracing electronic payment platforms established to ease the tax payment process and facilitate accountability.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), businesses operating in Nigeria paid the highest amount of taxes through electronic channels in five years in 2020.
The statistics office puts the total amount paid in Company Income Tax (CIT) through the electronic channels at N238.1 billion in 2020.
The amount represents 16.9 percent of the total CIT paid in 2020 as more businesses adopt safer online payment methods.
NBS noted that payments were done through E-transact, E-tax pay and Remita.
However, a further breakdown of the report showed taxes fell by 13.5 percent from N1.63 trillion in 2019 to 1.41 trillion in 2020 due to the lockdown that crippled business activities in the first half of the year.
Taxes paid by Nigerian owned companies declined by 2.78 percent from N813.17 billion in 2019 to N790.58 billion in 2020. While taxes paid by international companies declined from N615.52 billion achieved in 2019 to N388.77 billion in 2020.
