The road infrastructure tax credit scheme is one of the innovations of President Buhari’s administration to encourage investment in critical infrastructure, according to the Director, Emerging and Special Taxes Department of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
Hajia Amina Ado stated the Nigerian National Petroleum Company NNPC Limited, which is one of the participants of the scheme, has earmarked about N620 billion for 21 roads across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
She says: “The one the NNPCL is handling, there are 21 roads spread across the 6 geopolitical zones and about 620 billion has been deployed for this purpose and one of the road is almost done.
“The Lagos-Badagry is part of the program.
There are some roads in Niger State that are very critical to the provision of petrol and diesel and they are also being worked on”.
Among the 21 roads covered in the program include: Ilorin, Jebba-Mokwa/Bokani Junction road, Lagos-Badagry expressway, Enugu Onitcha road, Odukpani-Itu -Ikot Ekpene road and Ibadan-Ilorin road.
According to Amina, participants in the scheme are entitled to tax credit against their future company’s income tax, to the tune of the project cost incurred in the construction or refurbishment of the eligible roads.
She further stated that the scheme is a success as some projects that has been on the table for a long time like the Bonny road, has finally been completed under this scheme.
“This is a very important scheme. It is leveraging on the capacity of the private sector to be more efficient in project delivery and it’s a success because even the Bonny road that has been on the table for a long time is now being finally done by the scheme and I am sure that by the time some of these roads become operational either by being fixed under this program or even the new roads like the Bonny roads, it’s going to improve the competitiveness of the Nigerian economy and in the end reduce our import.” Mrs Ado stated
The road infrastructure tax credit scheme is a Public-Private partnership intervention that enables the Federal Government of Nigeria to leverage private sector capital and efficiency for the construction, refurbishment and maintenance of critical infrastructure in the country.
It was birthed by an executive order 007 on the 25th of January, 2019 and it’s for a period of ten years.
