Borno seals off 10 shopping malls over tax defaults

Borno seals off 10 shopping malls over tax defaults

By Tada Jutha, Maiduguri

The Borno State Government has sealed off 10 mega shopping malls for defaults on payments of outstanding taxes.

While announcing the closures during the enforcement exercise Tuesday in Maiduguri, the Head of Legal unit and Secretary of the States’ Internal Revenue Service, Ardo Buba stated that the sealing measures are in line with Borno State Harmonised Revenue Law, 2020.

According to him, the assessment notices, demand notes and reminders have been served to all the affected properties before yesterday’s seal off.

“The owners of mega shopping malls failed to settle their payments that led to their closures today in Maiduguri,” he said; stating that the Revenue Service has targeted to generate N500 million from the withholding tax this year.

He lamented that as the first half of year draws closer, only N100 million was generated in the first quarter of 2021.

This was why he said the revenue service has stepped up its tax collection efforts to augment the revenue shortfalls from the monthly federal allocation.

He said the revenue argumentation was also to sustain the ongoing humanitarian, resettlement and developmental projects in the state.

“Most of the taxpayers in the state are adamant about their obligations,” he said, noting that tax is a constitutional matter.

“We’ll not remove the seals on these 10 shopping malls until 50% of these liabilities are duly paid,”

He warned that opening the sealed off malls without authorization would attract sanction in accordance with the provisions of section 153 subsection 1 Paragraph A to D of the Borno state Harmonised Revenue Law 2020 (as amended).

“The property owners should not remove the enforcement seals without the authorization of Executive Chairman of the Internal Revenue Service or be summarily sanction,” he said.

Borno seals off 10 shopping malls over tax defaults