Rivers govt drags FG to Supreme Court over VAT revenue

By Our Correspondent

The Rivers State government, through its Attorney-General, has gone to the Supreme Court to set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal that ordered it to maintain status quo on the collection of Value Added Tax, VAT, pending the determination of an appeal that was lodged by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS.

The State, in its nine grounds of appeal on Tuesday, is praying the apex court to order that the substantive appeal by the FIRS, marked CA/PH/282/2021, and all other processes therein, be heard and determined by a new panel of the Court of Appeal.

Aside from the FIRS, the Attorney-General of the Federation was cited as Respondents in the appeal that Rivers State entered through its team of lawyers led by Emmanuel Ukala, SAN.

Recall that a federal high court sitting in Port Harcourt had dismissed an application by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) seeking to stop the Rivers state government from collecting Value Added Tax (VAT).

EAGLE EYE WATCH reports that there was a swift decision as the Court of Appeal (COA) sitting in Abuja, on 10 September 2021, ordered both Rivers and Lagos States to maintain status quo on the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) pending the resolution of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS)’s appeal of the Federal High Court (FHC)’s judgment in the case between the Attorney General of Rivers State vs FIRS & Attorney General of the Federation.