Chairman of Gombe State Internally Revenue Service (IRS), Abubakar Tata, has decried the attitude of some corporate organisations in the state to tax payment, warning that henceforth, only immediate compliance will shake him off their trail.
He told The Guardian, yesterday, in an interview, that though the state’s Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) hit N10.1 billion in 2021 from N8.6 billion in 2019, the situation would have been better if some corporate bodies had paid their taxes.
“These corporate bodies, including financial institutions, have branches in Lagos, Port Harcourt and other big states, they dare not default in tax settlements (in those places). I wonder why then they decided to take us for granted in Gombe. We have said final no to their attitude,” he said.
Recalling the efforts his office made to secure a 10-year tax debt of N180 million, the financial expert said he went through legal war that lasted about three years and sealed the beaches of a first generation bank in the state metropolis for 48 hours.
Abubakar said he led the enforcement team that included security operatives, on Monday, to seal the bank when it was obvious that the management was not ready to comply with the order of Appeal Court in Bauchi to pay up.
Disclosing that though the state unsealed the bank on Wednesday after defraying the over N100 million tax debt, he wondered: “But why must we always go through legal war for ordinary and statutory things that ought to be done without stress?”
