C’River defaults in N3 billion unremitted tax deductions

Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has indicted Cross River State for being in default of over N3 billion of unremitted tax deductions to the Federal Government.

This disclosure came to the fore yesterday, as a delegation of the FIRS visited the state to discuss the way forward in the remittance of the deducted taxes.

The revenue agency stated that it has started the necessary steps aimed at recovering the taxes and other deductions made by the state.Led by the coordinator of the FIRS for Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Cross River State, Innocent Ohagwua, officials of the FIRS met with the state Deputy Governor, Prof Ivara Esu, in his office, where they spoke on their mission to recover the unremitted funds.

He said the team was in the state to discuss some of the outstanding issues, noting that the “unremitted taxes were in excess of N3 billion.”
Ohagwua said though the FIRS would prefer the arrears of outstanding deductions, especially taxes deducted from contractors and others to be remitted in bulk sum, they were however prepared to provide a window of opportunity to make such remittances in installments.
Reacting, the deputy governor said the state government would continue to work with the service to ensure that its objective of generating revenue for government was realised.

Esu demanded that issues identified by the FIRS be documented and forwarded to the state government for necessary action.
According to him, the state was already saddled with over N130 billion debts. He noted that with deductions from the federation account, the state goes home with less than N800m monthly, while its internally generated revenue has dropped by 16 percent, leaving a huge salary deficit of about N2 billion monthly.

He said, “We know that it is important for one to pay his or her taxes. My advice is that you should properly document these matters, make them very clear and not ambiguous,” to enable us commence work on them.