Following a 14-day ultimatum given to all taxpayers in Oyo State for the payment of all outstanding dues and levies to the coffers of government, no fewer than 13 banks have been sealed in the state.
The sealed banks include -Diamond, Stanbic IBTC, Skye, FCMB, Heritage, First Bank, Ecobank, Unity Bank, UBA, Keystone, Union bank among others.
It was gathered that the banks were sealed by officers of Oyo State board of internal revenue, under the task force team tagged Oyo State Inter ministerial Enforcement Unit for their failure to pay Environmental Developmental Levy (EDI) levy in the state.
In recent times, the Nigerian government at large has been raising concern over tax default. More so, warning defaulters of expected sanctions.
Recall that the Federal Government had vowed to sell the properties of tax evaders in the country. This was disclosed by the Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Tunde Fowler.
Fowler said the government is not only willing to sell properties built and developed in corporate names across the country on which taxes were not being paid, but will freeze thousands of bank accounts.
In August, 2018, FIRS sealed the premises of several companies in Lagos, over failure to fulfill tax obligations.
The FIRS team sealed Broadview Engineering Limited, Pivot Engineering Limited among others owned by a billionaire businessman. Pivot Engineering Limited, an Ikeja-based power engineering subsidiary of the Honeywell Group was said to have been in tax default to the tune of N610 million.
Stanbic IBTC closed at N41.50 in today’s trading session. Diamond Bank closed at N1.30 in today’s trading session.
