Katsina to Shut Banks, Others over Unremitted Tax
Francis Saudauna in Katsina
The Katsina State Revenue Services (KRS) has given banks and other agencies in the state a two-week ultimatum to remit tax collected on behalf of the state government or face the wrath of the law.
The Executive Director of Katsina Revenue Services (KRS), Alhaji Sirajo Mohammed, in the company of his team, disclosed this to journalists when they visited the defaulters in their offices within the state capital.
Sirajo, who said the accumulated debt is over N1 billion, noted that some of the defaulters are owing the state about N500 million.
The KRS team placed notices of non-compliance at strategic locations within the premises of the defaulters to draw the attention of the general public to the development.
“These agencies and organisations we visited are those that we have liabilities with. This is just a warning. We will still come back and enforce the law fully for recovery if within the time given, they do not respond and we did not see a payment from them.
“They have deducted government money and have not remitted it to the government. We have been on this issue for quite some time now. We have met and sat with them but they have refused to come up with their payments.
“So, based on the provisions of the law; we are telling them and telling the public that these organisations are non-tax compliance and so they should avoid transacting with them.
“In your interest, it is better you don’t deal with them. We are giving them two weeks within which to come forward and settle their outstanding liabilities, failure of which will result in recovery options without further recourse to these organisations.”
“We have quite a lot of options given by the law. We may choose to garnish or freeze their account or take over their accounts or lock up the premises until we get our payment. We have quite some options.
“So, we are hoping that this warning we have served should be enough. We hope they come around tomorrow or next to settle. So that we can come and remove the notices and inform the public that they can confidently resume transacting business with them,” Sirajo said.
