Petroleum Dealers In Court Over Allegations of Payee In Ebonyi 

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By; MKPUMA ENYINNA, Abakaliki

The Petroleum Dealers Association of Nigeria, Ebonyi State chapter, yesterday,  shutdown businesses as a result of the ongoing court case to resolve the issue of `Payee’ between the petroleum dealers and Ebonyi state Board of Internal Revenue.

Addressing newsmen after the court sitting in Abakaliki, the Chairman of the  Petroleum Dealers Association of Nigeria, Ebonyi State branch, Hon. Njaka Silas alleged  that the Board of Internal Revenue in Ebonyi State took about 18 companies to court over payee issues, insisting that monthly emolument of their staff must be compiled and forwarded to the board, but the petroleum dealers association insisted that it is abnormal to do so since their company’s staff are unstable, irregular and not permanent because they can easily abandon the job and move elsewhere anytime they want. 

Hon. Silas further explained that the issue of `Payee’ is not obtainable in other sister states in South East like Enugu, Imo, Anambra and Abia, questioning why their state should be different from others.

“Well, the State Board of Internal Revenue, took some of our members to court on the issue of 

`Payee’ ie we did not do filling for some years, now.

“As we have case in court, our offices can’t be open;we do close our offices as we go.And as we are going back, our offices will be open again.

“We don’t have any personal issue with government,except that Ebonyi state Board of Internal Revenue took about 18 companies to court over allegations of `Payee’, that they did not file payee for previous years.

“What they meant by filling payee is that the names of our workers should be submitted since we pay our workers monthly, at the end of the year, we compile monthly emolument and forward to them, but the new law says, if somebody doesn’t earn up to thirty thousand, a certain number of staff, should not do it which is not applicable to us.

“We have made inquiries from Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Imo and the are not doing it.So many other states in the country are not doing it, why is our own seeming to be different.

“Depot community has ordered that all filling stations in Ebonyi, any day we are going to court has to remain closed in solidarity.”

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