Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The Enugu State Government has reopened ShopRite and SPAR malls for business after sealing them for failing to remit their taxes to the state government.
The Chairman, Enugu State Internal Revenue Service (ESIRS) Mr Emmanuel Nnamani, confirmed this on Wednesday.
The ESIRS in early hours of Tuesday sealed Enugu ShopRite and Spar malls over failure to remit purchase taxes in their malls to the government after being served several warning notices.
Nnamani gave the two malls one week to remit all purchase taxes collected from their customers on behalf of the government.
He said the reopening of the malls came after their managements agreed to implement the purchase tax and also pay the arrears.
According to him, ESIRS has since 12 noon opened the malls after they reached out to us and agreed to pay.
“We realised that closing their shops was not the best option in compliance with ease of doing business,” Nnamani said.
The chairman noted that when businesses refused to comply with tax remittances, they would not have any other option than to take action.
He explained that purchase tax was Enugu State version of consumption tax paid by customers not the mall owners.
Nnamani said the tax was imposed on certain goods in which a customer pays five per cent only of the value of the goods.
The chairman said the tax had been in the state law since 2004 but was activated for collection in October 2023 and they were implementing it now.
“Because it covers mall activities, it is not them that pays but the customer. For instance, if the price of goods is N10,000, we ask that customer pays five per cent.
“What the business is expected to do is to charge customer N10,500 and remit N500 to government,” he stressed.
He added that ShopRite and SPAR owed the state more than N10 million each over purchasing tax.
“It is not them that were supposed to pay purchase tax but customers but they refused to implement it.
“We have engaged and pleaded with them and they refused but now they have agreed to pay even the arrears,” he said.
