The case was mentioned at the sitting of the Tribunal, but had to be adjourned as defence counsel reminded the Tribunal that the 30 days allowed for filling of reply has not been exhausted.
Although, the appellant’s Counsel was ready, the court had to allow room for filing of reply by the respondent in accordance with the court rules and procedures.
DAILY POST recalls that Plateau State Internal Revenue Service had filed an appeal at the Tribunal, claiming that the Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC) is in default of its tax obligation to the tune of N1.8 billion.
The appellant claimed it has followed all the laid down processes to get JEDC offset its accumulated tax liability but that the defendant failed to pay.
Breakdown of the accumulated sum showed that the defendant is owing PAYE of N840 million, Development levy on payroll amounting to N1million, withholding tax of N50.7million.
The appellant also claimed that 10% of the tax liability as well as 21% interest brings the total of the liability to N1.8 billion.
The appellant, therefore, prayed the court to compel the respondent to pay the aforementioned sum being the tax liability that accumulated between a period of 2015 and 2016.
However, after the arguments of both counsels on whether to go ahead with the hearing of the appeal or not; chairman of the Tribunal, Hon. Richard Umar Bala, said, “I hereby adjourned the case to the 24th of May, 2021 for hearing.
“It is the expectation of the Tribunal that the defence council would have filled its reply accordingly”, he maintained.
