The Kano State Internal Revenue Service (KIRS) has sealed the regional office of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) and four other branches of the bank in the state over tax evasion for six years.
The Legal Director of the KIRS, Barrister Bashir Madobi announced the closure of the bank’s branches while briefing newsmen after the exercise.
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He said the closure was in line with an order of expatriate issued by Kano State High Court over the bank’s failure to audit and pay its taxes between 2014 and 2019, accruing to N1,005,687,755.55.
According to him, the affected branches include that of Murtala Muhammad Way, Wapa, Zaria Road, Bachirawa and France Road.
He said, “It was the bank’s refusal to pay the accrued amount or release some of their audit reports that forced the agency to take the action.
“What irritated us to take this action is that right from the initial stage, we have demanded for some documents from them which they failed to provide.
“Despite closure of the branches, we still need the documents. It is from the said documents that we will get the accumulated tax figure the bank owed Kano state government.
“As revenue authority, KIRS is saddled with the responsibility of enforcing payment of taxes which are due.
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Madobi said one of the procedures the agency followed in order to enforce payment of due tax is through institution of a court case before a competent court.
“So, we decided to file this case before the State High Court on ex-parte application.
“KIRS as plaintiff after furnishing the court with all the evidences, the court satisfied that the tax is due, and based on that, it granted us judgement that we should go and seal the property of GT Bank.
“This is why we went there today to enforce the judgment and enforce the payment of due tax as provided under the extant revenue laws.
“The money is over N1bn. The next line of action is we expect them to come so that we sit down and sort it out if they are willing to do so,” Madobi said.
He explained that the bank must pay a minimum of 25 percent of the liability and provide the earlier requested documents as conditions for reopening the sealed branches.
According to him, the bank was also expected to pay 10 percent of the total revenue amount as provided for any tax payer who refuses to pay his tax until the matter gets to court.
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All efforts to contact the affected bank branches failed as all their Managers declined comment.
Meanwhile hundreds of customers who went to the affected branches for business were disappointed following the closure of the branches.
