Senate set to amend Companies Income Tax Act

The Senate on Wednesday passed the bill for an Act to amend the company’s income tax and for other matters into law.

It was sponsored by Senator Andy Uba and was taken in on November 26, 2015 for the first time and specifically seeks to amend Sections 34, 36, 39 and 40 of the principal Act.

In the lead debate, Andy Uba said the proposed amendments are to encourage investments in the industrial and mining sectors of the economy, in rural areas where ordinarily it would have been unattractive to invest.

He added, the Bill speaks directly to the issues of stimulating economic activities, through greater tax incentives, engendering Economic Development, promotion of industrialisation and job creation in Nigeria.

According to him “when the Bill is passed into law, it is expected that the economic activities that would be generated through tax moratorium assured by the proposed Act, would generally provide the hitherto elusive employment opportunities for our qualified youths, who today are roaming the streets of the urban areas in search of non-existent jobs.”

This Bill he stated is one of the potent tools that could trigger the much-desired investments, in local manufacturing and industrialisation by both foreign and local companies, adding that, it would also provide an opportunity for the development of rural areas and provision of infrastructure, by members of the private sector.

He reasoned, the expected economic activities to be generated by virtue of the provisions of the amendments sought, are to be concentrated in the rural and semi-urban areas, where infrastructures are lacking.

The lawmaker however informed that, the new clauses in the Bill canvasses a ten-year tax exemption for a new company going into business, where infrastructures such as electricity, water, or tarred road are not provided by government, while companies with investment in the mining and gas industries, respectively would be exempted for five years.