We sealed NDDC office in Rivers over outstanding N26bn tax debt, says FIRS

The Federal Inland Reve­nue Service (FIRS) says it sealed the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) corporate headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, on Thursday over tax debt.

Muhammed Nami, FIRS chairman, said this in an interview with NTA yesterday.

Although, Nami did not state the specific amount, he said NDDC owes an “outstanding tax of N26 billion”.

This is not the first time the tax agency is carrying out the act. In 2018, the Rivers Inland Revenue Service (RIRS) sealed off the NDDC headquarters in the state due to withholding tax estimated at over N600 million.

After a year, the same was done over unpaid withholding tax to the tune of N50 billion.

In April 2021, the FIRS directed all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to remit all outstanding tax liabilities to the service within 60 days.

It said failure to do will lead to the deduction of unremitted taxes from the budgetary allocation of the defaulting MDAs.

Nami said: “Tax debt is a priority all over the world. We’ve sent a signal to ministries, departments and agencies of government that business is not going to be usual in this country.

“You cannot keep government money and force the government, whether at local, state and federal level, to continue to borrow…because these monies (taxes) are used by the government to fund their budgetary requirement.

“We’ve discussed (FIRS and NDDC), even with some cabinet members, and we’ve reached an agreement which will be made known to Nigerians between now (Friday) and Monday.”

Meanwhile, Ibitoye Abosede, NDDC director of corporate affairs, said the development was due to a gap in communication between NDDC and the new management of FIRS.