Breaking News: IRS Seals Off Federal University of Agric, Makurdi Over N2.3bn Debt

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.

Alabatvnews.