The enforcement team of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Tuesday, May 3, 2016, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, sealed the business premises of 10 companies that defaulted in remitting their taxes to the federal government.
The zonal co-ordinator of the FIRS in charge of Rivers, Edo and Delta State (called the RED States), Mr. Thomas Joel-Onowakpo , who is leading the enforcement drive, told reporters that “the campaign is in line with the directive of the FIRS management with clear instructions to seal up all companies that have refused to file returns and have not paid their tax liabilities.”
“This exercise being carried out throughout the country will be enforced in all the three states within my jurisdiction starting with Rivers State, followed by Edo and Delta states.
“My simple advice to the tax paying public is that, they should quickly go to the FIRS office nearest to them to file their returns, reconcile and pay up any outstanding liabilities to avoid unnecessary embarrassment because the administration of Mr. Babatunde Fowler is determined to collect every kobo due to government.
“We want to stop the lukewarm attitude to paying taxes. Time has changed and the attitude towards payment of taxes must change. Tax is the only sustainable revenue source that can help government meet up with its obligations and must be supported,” Joel-Onowakpo said.
According to him, the FIRS is fully determined to utilize all options available to it to recover all liabilities from all defaulting taxpayers that refused to settle their indebtedness including the arrest of the chief executive officers and directors of the defaulting organizations.
Meanwhile, taxpayers with outstanding tax liabilities have been flooding the zonal headquarters of FIRS to reconcile their accounts with the FIRS to avoid been shut down at the time of filing this report.
