EDSG seals up 1st Bank,  for evading tax

BENIN CITY - As part of the fight against non-compliance with tax remittance, the Edo State Board of Internal Revenue (BIR), yesterday sealed up all the branches of First Bank Plc. in the state for tax evasion.

The Board had earlier on Tuesday, sealed former Afribank now Mainstreet Bank and FinBank Plc in Benin City over their alleged failure to remit N71 million tax deducted from their staff.

Speaking to newsmen in Benin City yesterday, the Chairman, Edo State Board of Internal Revenue, Chief Oseni Elamah said the sealing up of the financial institutions was part of efforts to ensure tax compliance to the state.

He said the enforcement by the Board of Internal Revenue which will be a continuous exercise, was not targeted at the banks alone but will be extended to other recalcitrant organisations that default in the payment of tax to government.

The BIR chairman hinted that tax experts were hired as consultants to audit most of the banks and check their records, adding that it was on the basis of these reports that they were issued demand notice for them to pay the correct tax.

He said that the banks would not be opened until they remit all the monies to the government.

Chief Elamah also disclosed that the Board would soon commence a Tax Payers Identification Scheme, where every tax payer in Edo State will have a unique identity and we can check at any time whether they are up-to-date.

“The identity has a chip that carries all the information about you and your tax status. We will just slot it into our system and it will tell us about your status”, he added.

He said the scheme when approved by the state government, will be done in collaboration with the Federal Inland Revenue Service which will make it a nationwide affair.

The board chairman hinted that many organisations including media houses, federal agencies, and muti-nationals as well as other companies are guilty of tax evasion.

He re-affirmed the resolve of the government to ensure that no eligible tax payer in the state evades tax any longer, stressing that the correct tax must be paid as at when due.

source: http://www.nigerianobservernews.com/18082011/news/news3.html


with all d tax + charges dem 1st bank takes from customers accounts daily, so dey dont pay their own tax.  dis is really bad gan. dis is d only bank i have trusted in 9ja n saved in all my life. D DEVIL IS A BASTARD!

bloody tax evaders. MAKE UNA DO SOMETHING SHARP SHARP OH. NONSENSICAL

God for them. They declare profit in billion year after year without paying tax.

can u imagine first bank! Wat a shame!!

lol i cant shout pls

lol

Dis na naija, dis na nai- dis na nai- dis na naija *singin*. Hope say at last dem go pay the N71milla + penalty

this is absolute rubish, ever copying all the evils of fashola in lagos. ACN will soon task the air we breath.
has he gone to find out if the head office as should be the case has remitted all the taxes to the federation account. multiple taxing everywher you see tinubu and co. my office is having the same issue, at the head office about 30k is deducted every month and yet lagos state wants us to pay separate tax to them. i tought this had been settled when they went to drag it with nafdac.
shame on ACN- what hope do we have almost getting worse than the PDP we rejected