• Friday, March 29, 2024
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NDDC offices sealed by Rivers revenue board over N50bn claim

NDDC offices sealed by Rivers revenue board over N50bn claim
The seeming hostile relationship between the Rivers State government and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) seems to get worse as offices of the interventionist agency have once again been sealed off.
The Rivers government acted through its revenue agency, the Rivers State Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which slammed a bill of N50 billion claimed as underpayment. Before now, the state government had consistently accused the NDDC of either collecting funds for joint medical project that it did not execute or for not remitting taxes to the state.
Last year, the commission’s headquarters was sealed by the RIRS after which huge sums were remitted. This has happened again, with the IRS claiming N50 billion as outstanding.
Reacting, the NDDC says it owes the state no kobo, having allegedly cleared their payments as of March 2019. The commission says until a claim is established for underpayment, no party was right to use force.
A statement issued by its corporate affairs department Tuesday evening said the Commission was surprised that the state revenue agency was claiming an outstanding N50 billion and acted without notification.
“We have had cause to discuss our tax obligations with officials of the RIRS in the past and all the grey areas were resolved amicably. It is, therefore, an act of bad faith for the revenue agency to begin to take actions that impugn on the reputation of an interventionist agency that is serving the people of the Niger Delta region.
 
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Commission has as recently as January this year settled its outstanding tax obligations to the IRS.
“We have cleared all Withholding tax (WHT) on enterprises and Pay as you earn (PAYE) up to March, 2019, including arrears. If there is any other issue of outstanding tax obligation (underpayment), it will only come up after reconciliation.
Until then we cannot establish or determine underpayment or overpayment. And our books are open for audit or reconciliation.
“That can only come to play after a thorough audit exercise.
We can under the circumstances safely say that the IRS came to seal off our premises without due process.  As notice of non-compliance was neither issued nor served on NDDC before the IRS action. We, therefore, call on the IRS to remove the sealing order on our premises to enable both parties to enter into dialogue and agreeably resolve our differences.”