NDDC denies owing Rivers State government 50Bn in taxes

The row between the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and the Rivers State Internal Revenue Service, RIRS, seems far from over as the RIRS sealed the premises of the commission over default in tax payment.

But NDDC said that as a responsible corporate organisation, it has not defaulted in meeting its tax obligations to the Rivers State Internal Revenue Services, RIRS.

This was contained in a statement by the commission’s Director, Corporate Affairs, Charles Obi Odili

He explained that the Commission is surprised that the state revenue agency is claiming an outstanding Fifty Billion Naira (N50,000,000.000.00). Our records show that this is not correct.

The commission said it was rather curious that the RIRS would rush to seal the gates of the Commission, disrupting activities at its headquarters, without any form of notification.

According to the statement: “We have had cause to discuss our tax obligations with officials of the RIRS in the past and all the grey areas were resolved amicably.

The commission explained that: “It is, therefore, an act of bad faith for the revenue agency to begin to take actions that impugn on the reputation of an interventionist agency that is serving the people of the Niger Delta region.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Commission has as recently as January this year settled its outstanding tax obligations to the RIRS.

“We have cleared all Withholding tax (WHT) on enterprises and Pay as you earn (PAYE) up to March 2019, including arrears. If there is any other issue of outstanding tax obligation (underpayment), it will only come up after reconciliation.

“Until then we cannot establish or determine underpayment or overpayment. And our books are open for audit or reconciliation.

“It is not right for only one party to claim to have established that there is underpayment or overpayment. That can only come to play after a thorough audit exercise.

“We can under the circumstances safely say that the RIRS came to seal off our premises without due process. As notice of non-compliance was neither issued nor served on NDDC before the RIRS action.

“We, therefore, call on the RIRS to remove the sealing order on our premises to enable both parties enter into dialogue and agreeably resolve our differences”