About ten business premises have been sealed off by the Federal Inland Revenue Service due to the companies’ failure to remit their taxes to the Federal Government.
The state coordinator of the FIRS in Rivers, Edo and Delta states, Joel-Onowakpo Thomas, in a statement on Monday, explained that the clampdown was in line with the directive of the FIRS management to ensure zero-tolerance for tax defaulters.
Joel-Onowakpo further explained that FIRS was bent on utilising all available options to recover all liabilities from all defaulting taxpayers, stressing that FIRS would not hesitate to effect the arrest of the chief executive officers and directors of the defaulting organizations.
The statement read, “This exercise is being carried out throughout the country and will be enforced in all the three states within my jurisdiction starting with Rivers, 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 FIRS 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 the payment of taxes must change. Tax is the only sustainable revenue source that can help government fulfill its obligations and must be supported.”
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