A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, has made to interpret the ruling of the Court of Appeal in the case involving the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Rivers State Government over who has the right to collect Value Added Tax.
The human rights lawyer stated his position on the ruling in a statement he made available to newsmen on Saturday.
A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt had in a judgment in suit number FHC/PH/CS/149/2020 held that the Rivers State Government had the powers to collect VAT within its territory.
The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike had assented to the Rivers State Value Added Tax Law 2021 in August after it was passed by the state House of Assembly.
The FIRS had then gone to the Court of Appeal where Justice Haruna Tsammani on Friday told the parties to the dispute to “maintain status quo”.
But according to Ozekhome, the ruling of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Friday meant the Rivers State Government has the power to collect VAT until the court decides otherwise.
He said in the statement: “Clearly, the status quo ante bellum was before the breakout of the hostilities.
“The hostilities broke out when the FIRS dragged the Rivers State Government to court, arguing that it cannot collect VAT based on its law. The said law was already duly passed and made operational by Rivers State House of Assembly that it has the constitutional competency under section 4 of the Constitution to do so.
“The FHC, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, had earlier held that it was the Rivers State Government that was competent to collect VAT, not the FIRS.
“The law was already therefore in operation before the FIRS challenged the validity of an FHC judgement, PH, that had given the Rivers State Government the power to collect the VAT.
“So, the status quo is that it is the Rivers State Government that has the power to collect VAT, until perhaps, the Court of Appeal rules otherwise and set aside the FHC judgment.”