Customers Stranded As Kano State Govt Seals Five GT Bank Branches Over Tax Evasion

Many customers of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) were stranded on Tuesday after the Kano State Internal Revenue Service (KIRS) sealed five branches of bank for tax evasion.The closure is 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.

The affected branches include that of Murtala Muhammad Way, Wapa, Zaria Road, Bachirawa and France Road.

Briefing newsmen during the exercise, the Legal Director of the agency, Barrister Bashir Yusuf Madobi, said it is the bank’s refusal to pay the accrued amount or release some of their audit reports that forced the agency to take the action.

He said, “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 honour us and give us the document. But, still the first action we will take is to still request for this documents. It is based on them that we will come with actual figure of the liability due to the KIRS.

“As sales authority, KIRS is saddled with the obligation of enforcing charge of taxes that are due.

“One of the techniques we comply with which will enforce payment of due tax is thru institution a court docket case earlier than a capable court docket. So, we decided to document this case earlier than the State High Court on ex-parte utility.

“So, we the KIRS as plaintiff after furnishing the court with all the evidences, the courtroom happy that the tax is due, and based totally on that, it granted us judgement that we ought to move and seal the assets of GT Bank.

“This is why we went there these days to put in force the judgment and implement the fee of due tax as furnished beneath the extant revenue legal guidelines.

“The money is over N1bn. The next line of action is we assume them to return so that we take a seat down and kind it out if they're willing to achieve this,” Barrister Madobi.

On the condition for reopening the sealed branches, KIRS said the financial institution ought to pay at the very least 25 percent of the liability and provide the sooner asked documents.

The bank is also predicted to pay 10 percent of the overall revenue amount as furnished for any tax payer who refuses to pay hi tax until the problem receives to court.

However, attempt to pay attention from the affected bank branches has proved abortive as all their Managers have decided to keep mum, pronouncing that they are not authorized to talk on the bank’s behalf.

Daily Trust reviews that masses of clients who trooped to the affected branches for transactions in advance inside the morning had to later leave following the seal.