The Federal University of Agriculture in Makurdi has been sealed off by the Benue State Internal Revenue Service.
A Punch report has shown that the Benue State Internal Revenue
Service has sealed off the Federal University of Agriculture , Makurdi,
over non remittance of Personal Income Tax running into N2.3bn.
The Chairman of the Board, Mrs. Mimi Adzape-Orubibi, led the
enforcement agents to the university located at north bank area of the
state, where they sealed off the offices of the vice-chancellor,
registrar and the bursar.
The institution’s chapter of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities has described the move as a fraudulent attempt to commence
another round of illegal deductions from the salaries of its members, a
situation ASUU said might instigate crisis in the university.
Mrs. Adzape-Orubibi while speaking shortly after the exercise, said
the BIRS had to make the move after the university failed to respond to
several letters written to it to pay up the outstanding Personal Income
Tax from 2007 to 2011.
”The BIRS got an interim order to restrain FUAM because it
failed to deduct PAYE tax in some cases or deducted less in other cases.
The institution would now have to pay almost N3bn, inclusive of
penalties and interest,” she stated.
According to her, Benue State Government is very passionate about
education, stressing that the decision to picket the institution became
necessary owing to its continued evasion of tax.
But in a swift reaction, acting Chairman of ASUU, Mr. Bemgba
Anjembe, insisted that PAYE was deducted monthly from staff salary and
alleged that there is suspected connivance between BIRS and the
university authority not to remit taxes already deducted from staff,
thus denying them access to tax clearance certificate.
Anjembe said: “On August 27, 2014, BIRS wrote a letter to the
VC in which it informed that the university was owing BIRS tax liability
due to the failure to deduct PAYE tax to the tune of over N2bn.
“That was their claim, but we don’t agree with that figure. How
did BIRS arrive at that value? The university is not a business outfit
but a social service. This is fraud.”
The students of the university however besieged the BIRS office
located on Gboko Road, Makurdi, to protest the closure of their
institution and called for dialogue between the BIRS and the university
authority.
When contacted, the university’s management which spoke through its
Public Relations Officer, Joseph Fanafa, said it was maintaining a
dignified silence on the matter until the outcome of a meeting with BIRS
scheduled for Friday.
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