OSAKA -- Tax authorities have ordered major trading house Marubeni Corp. to pay 1.2 billion yen in back taxes, it was learned Saturday.

Industry sources said the company failed to declare 3.5 billion yen in income in the four years to March 31, 2001. Marubeni paid about 800 million yen to a local agent in Nigeria, declaring it as commission fees for selling printing machines to the country during the four-year period, they said.

The Osaka Regional Taxation Bureau concluded that the money should have been booked as a taxable expense since it was actually used to pay for the company's activities to obtain the export orders for the machines.