Five things to know to start your Friday

VAT, CIT to FG hits N3.9trillion in nine months

According to the most recent National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data, the total amount of money generated for the Federal Government in the form of taxes from consumers and businesses during the first nine months of 2022 was N3.9 trillion.

The taxes generated, which are categorised as value-added tax and company income tax, moved up by 36.84 percent from N2.85 trillion in a similar period of 2021.

Further details from the report showed that the total company income tax paid for the nine months under review was N2.08 trillion, while the total VAT paid was N1.81 trillion.

The top three sectors driving most of the revenue in terms of company income tax for the agency were financial and insurance, information and communication, and manufacturing.

While for value-added tax, the sectors are mining and quarrying, information and communication, and manufacturing.

FG insists on minimum wage compliance, begins implementation monitoring

Chris Ngige, the minister of labour and employment, said that the federal government had put plans in place to start implementation of the national minimum wage. The minister said that the implementation was very critical to national development.

Ngige made the remarks on Thursday at a Public Enlightenment and Sensitization Workshop for Field Officers Monitoring National Minimum Wage Implementation in Abuja.

The event was organised by the National Salaries, Incomes, and Wages Commission (NSIWC).

Ngige said ensuring compliance with the National Minimum Wage Act would ensure that workers were not shortchanged.

He also said that “a satisfied worker would contribute effectively and efficiently to the sustainability and growth of an enterprise.

“This will in turn contribute to national development and less disruption in productivity, occasioned by industrial actions.”

“There is therefore an urgent need to ensure a living wage to all employed and in need of such protection, as well as a just and equitable share of the fruits of progress.”

The minister said the formal and informal sectors were represented during the collective bargaining mechanisms that produced the Act.

He said that with that, no establishment could claim ignorance or non-involvement in reaching the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on the minimum wage.

FG considers renaming FIRS to NRS in 2022 Finance Bill

Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Finance, Budget, and Economic Planning, appeared before the Senate Committee on Thursday to defend, among several amendment proposals on the 2022 Finance Act, the change of name of the Federal Inland Revenue Service to the Nigeria Revenue Service.

The amendments were part of changes added to the 2022 Finance Act sent to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The other change seeking Senate approval is the reorganisation of the board of the FIRS, which hopes to separate the executive management from the board of directors.

“The chairman of the agency will now be referred to as the commissioner general,” she said.

Ortom signs N179billion 2023 budget into law

Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue State on Thursday signed the 2023 budget of N179 billion into law.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the governor disclosed that the recurrent expenditure was pegged at N106 billion while capital expenditure was N73 billion.

He appreciated the state assembly for passing the budget quickly.

“We have no other business than to serve the people, and whatever we do is for the good of the people.

“I have assented to the appropriation bill to make it a law,” Ortom said.

FTX opposes BlockFi’s claim to Bankman-Fried’s Robinhood shares

FTX on Thursday pleaded with a U.S. bankruptcy judge to stop cryptocurrency lender BlockFi from laying claim to more than $440 million worth of Robinhood stock purchased by indicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

According to Reuters, BlockFi filed a lawsuit on Nov. 28 demanding the turnover of 56 million Robinhood shares that were allegedly pledged as collateral for BlockFi’s loans to the FTX-affiliated crypto hedge fund Alameda Research.

In its filing in the U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware, FTX, hoping to take full advantage of the protection U.S. bankruptcy law provides, asked that BlockFi be prevented from any further debt collection from the company.

FTX said it believes that the shares are actually owned by Alameda Research and that the bankrupt FTX companies must hold onto the stock while investigating other disputed claims to the equity shares’ ownership.

Bankman-Fried himself has claimed ownership of the Robinhood shares, and an individual FTX creditor has asked a court in Antigua, where FTX is incorporated, to make the Robinhood shares available to repay FTX creditors, according to FTX.
FTX said Bankman-Fried sought to claim the Robinhood shares as “a source of payment for legal expenses.” Bankman-Fried was arraigned Thursday in New York on fraud charges and released on a $250 million bond.