SABMiller not Anambra's highest tax payer, says state's revenue board chairman

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By Madu Obi

The Anambra State Internal Revenue Service, AIRS, has reacted to the statement made by the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi, that SABMiller Breweries is the highest taxpayer in the state, describing it as totally false.

Obi had, at the LP governorship campaign in Onitsha, said that the brewery built during his administration is the highest revenue yielding establishment in the state.

The former governor had compared the brewery with the Fun City recently commissioned in Awka and asked which one is more profitable.

But the chairman of AIRS, Dr Greg Ezeilo, while reacting on the claim, said that revenue data for the last two years showed that SABMiller Breweries came a distant sixth position among tax paying establishments in the state.

According to Ezeilo, contrary to the claim, SABMiller contributed on the average, N28 million per month in 2023 and N26.62 million per month in 2024, thereby becoming the sixth ranked tax paying company in the state.

He said the clarification became necessary to properly situate the claims made by the former governor and to give undiluted information for the members of the public.

Ezeilo's statement read in part: “The attention of the Anambra State Internal Revenue Service has been drawn to some public domain of claims regarding the fact that SABMiller Breweries is the highest taxpayer in the state.

For the avoidance of doubts, while the Service has made very monumental strides in increasing the internally generally revenue of the state from its very low ebb of between N1.5bn to N2.0bn per month, and even much lower in the previous years; the tax collection has consistently moved up to N4bn per month and with an all-time high of N10.5bn in the month of May, 2025.

A double-check on the last two years data on tax collections across corporate bodies, including SABMiller, but excluding federal institutions which contribute hugely to the state’s IGR, especially the pay as you earn taxes, showed the position of top six taxpayers in the state.

Interestingly, SABMiller company comes a distant sixth position behind Fidelity Bank Plc with a gross tax payment of N656.5 million in two years (2023 and 2024)."