Miffed by illegal activities of tax defaulters resulting from increasing rate of tax evasion, especially among corporates and businesses in the state, the Ogun State Internal Revenue Service (OGIRS) has sealed up about 45 firms and businesses operating across the 20 local government areas.
According to official statistics released by the OGIRS to BusinessDay in Abeokuta, on Wednesday, it had been granted orders by court of to seal up over 60 firms and businesses in the last three years, but was able to implement 45 of them, representing 75 percent implementation.
Speaking at a seal-up of a timber and woods firm – Trade and Change Nigeria Limited, located at Okun-Owa in Odogbolu Local Government Area of the state, Temidayo Shokunbi, legal director, OGIRS, said some businesses were operating in the state without intent to pay due taxes.
He said the investigations conducted across the state showed that some firms and businesses, including Trade and Change Nigeria Limited, “have been hiding under and operating in the state with the intent and purpose to deprive government of taxes.”
While lamenting that some business owners, despite efforts of the revenue service to reach them, he specifically pointed out that Trade and Change Nigeria Limited, as one of such tax evaders, had not paid any form of taxes in the last five years.
Shokunbi, who noted that government had devised strict legal framework and mechanisms to squeeze taxes out of those identified tax evaders as part of efforts to aggressively increase revenue from taxation, added that the state government would not tolerate any firm and individual who tried to evade tax.
He, however, appealed to investors, entrepreneurs who either operate or live in the state to pay their taxes promptly for the state to increase investment in infrastructure, and thereby brining out socio-economic development.
