Chidi Nkwopara
11 November 2009
Owerri — Imo State Government has threatened to publish names of individuals and corporate organizations it branded chronic tax defaulters should they fail to defray their liabilities to government.
Addressing a news conference in Owerri, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Revenue Generation, Mobilization and Account Monitoring, Deacon Kierian Onwuzuruike, said the government was no longer comfortable with the prevailing situation.
"Government is no longer very comfortable with the degree of tax default in the state. In view of this prevailing circumstance, government is constrained to publish the names of chronic tax defaulters in the state," Onwuzuruike said.
He confirmed that "the only federal establishment sealed by the State Board of Internal Revenue (BIR) is the Owerri branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)."
According to Onwuzuruike, some of the chronic corporate tax defaulters deducted Pay-As-You-Earn tax from their staff and refused to remit it to the state government's coffers.
"The BIR did not go wrong in sealing some of the establishments. The Personal Income Tax Law is a federal legislation. Section 82 of the Law makes employers liable if they fail to remit taxes deducted," he said.
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