LAGOS NOVEMBER 9TH (URHOBOTODAY) – Delta State Government has shut down two private companies and a three-star hotel in Warri for alleged tax evasion to the tune of N42 million.
The State Board of Internal Revenue sealed off the premises of the companies in company with personnel from High Court in Warri as well as mobile policemen.
Legal aide to the Executive Chairman of DBIR, Barrister Clark Ekpebe, said during the operation that the actions of the defaulters contravene the law.
He said the sometime in September , the Board of under Hon. Joel-Onowakpo Thomas held a stakeholders’ meeting with tax payers in the state where he appealed to them to pay up their outstanding on or before September 25, warning that the Board would take all legal steps to recover the monies owed the State Government.
Clark noted that a situation where the state government is owed several billions of naira was worrisome and incompatible with the present administration’s vision of Delta Beyond Oil which is anchored mostly on internally generated revenue which the Board has a duty to enforce.
“Consequently, having exhausted every means for defaulters to see reason and settle their outstanding liabilities to no avail, the Board is now embarking on enforcement exercise against defaulters with duly secured court orders to seal up and distrain upon their goods and chattels in settlement of the liabilities.
“We want to assure the tax-paying public that as much as the Board will not take undue advantage of any tax payer so shall it not collect a kobo less of what is due to the state government.
“This exercise is total against defaulters and there are no sacred cows as the law will take its course on all of them, ” he said.
The Manager of Shore Gas Limited whose firm was sealed off along with two others said she was not aware of the new liabilities as they have been remitting their deductions.
She however blamed the incident on breakdown in communication.
However, officials of Lateejay Oil and Gas Limited and Mega Hilton Hotel , whose premises were also sealed, refused to comment on the development.
Source: THE WILL