Borno State Board Of Internal Revenue Service (BO-IRS)
Borno Govt to shut down 7 UN agencies over tax evasion, issues 30-day grace
Borno Government, through its Board Of Internal Revenue Service (BO-IRS), has accused seven agencies of the United Nations (UN) operating in the state of tax evasion.
BO-IRS said, Wednesday, that the seven humanitarian agencies include; the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), World Food Programme (WFP), World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), and the United Nations Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
This is also the agency issued a 30-day grace to the affected agencies to pay up or have their property seized. The grace ends February 24, 2022.
According to the Borno revenue board, the humanitarian agencies refused to allow Nigerian staffers to pay the constitutionally sanctioned Pay As You Earn (PAYE).
Chairman of the BO-IRS, Muhammad Alkali, told a press conference, Wednesday, at the Revenue House in Maiduguri that while other humanitarian agencies had complied, the seven organisations had refused to respond to all their demands.
Alkali said the Board acknowledges that the UN bodies are international aid entities as well as their foreign expatriates are exempted from tax payment, “but their Nigerian staffs are to pay their PAYE and to withhold tax personal Income Tax Act CAP P8 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
The Revenue board chairman said while other UN agencies like International Organisation for Migration (IOM), who are in the large taxpayer’s category, are complying, the seven mentioned more prominent agencies had continually ignored all communication sent to them for compliance.
“The BO-IRS is not oblivious of the convention exempting UN agencies filing tax returns on behalf of their staff, individuals and enterprise contractors from paying on their clients’ taxes, but it is worthy to note that UN agencies are enjoined to respect and comply with the local laws of the land or in the state they operate, hence the reason the BOIRS is demanding the raw data of their Nigerian staff and individual contractors; but all efforts to get these documents proved abortive,” Alkali said.
He said BO-IRS was left with “no option than to employ legitimate means to compel them to do so. We have already taken steps by serving the UN Agencies herein mentioned notice of seizure of properties which is due to lapse on 24th February 2022,” he said.
