From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State
The Kogi State Internal Revenue Service (KGIRS), has condemn in strong terms what it described as the ongoing campaign of calumny against the organisation by the Globacom.
The KGIRS described the indigenous telecom giant, “Globacom as a serial tax defaulter as they have not fufiled their tax obligation since 2017.”
The Executive Chairman, Kogi Internal Revenue Service, Sule Salihu Enehe while addressing a press conference in Lokoja on Wednesday, denied the accusations that the agency was collecting illegal taxes.
He said that Glo was the only telecom company which had vehemently refused to fulfill its tax obligation including failure to get approval for planting their masts in the state.
“Glo is a notorious and serial tax defaulter who take pride in refusing to fulfill their tax obligation, despite repeated plea and Communications asking them to pay up”
“Instead of the company to pay up, they were using various Federal government agencies to blackmail both the state government and KGIRS,” the Chairman noted.
Also speaking at the briefing, the Director, Legal services to the KGIRS, Saidu Okino said that the current situation leading to the ceiling off the premises housing Glo was carried out after series of correspondents with the organisations and after obtaining court judgement permitting it to carry out the operation.
He explained that while others such as MTN, 9mobile have been up to date in their tax obligation, Airtel had been paying until recently when the suddenly stopped.
To this end, Okino put the tax default of Glo at N300 million while that of Airtel is N60 million adding that neither of them have made any serious move to resolve the issue.
All efforts to get the reaction of the the telecom giant proved abortive as the Glo regional manager said that he was not permitted to speak on the face- off between his organisation and Kogi Inland Revenue service, KGIRS. He refused to give his name.
