FIRS shuts hotel, micro finance bank over tax debts

March 3, 2017 7:32 AM

Anita Erinne, leader of the enforcement team, said the hotel management owed N13, 672,901.00 of unremitted Value Added Tax, VAT.

On Thursday, March 2, 2017, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, shut Mirage Hotel, in Calabar, the capital of Cross River.

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Upon the arrival of the FIRS enforcement team, it was discovered that the hotel had stopped operating.

Anita Erinne, leader of the enforcement team, said the hotel management owed N13, 672,901.00 of unremitted Value Added Tax, VAT.

Also sealed was the Cross River State University of Science and Technology (CRUTECH) Micro Finance Bank over a similar tax liability.

Erinne said the micro finance bank owed VAT in arrears of N11million from 2009 - 2012.

While pleading for leniency, Morris Ekpenyong, managing director of the bank, claimed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had granted the organisation a waiver on the particular tax debt.

Ekpenyong added the micro finance had demonstrated sincerity by earlier paying N2million out of its tax debt. He said the payment was done after the bank allegedly negotiated with the FIRS.