Nigerian Breweries to appeal against Ondo’s court N169m tax liabilities
The management of Nigerian Breweries Plc has said it is going to appeal against court ruling that awarded N169million ro Ondo State Government in respect of tax liabilities.
An Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure, had ordered that the Nigerian Breweries depot in Akure be sealed off pending the settlement of their tax liabilities to the state government.
Justice William Akintoroye also granted the cross-petition of the state government for the recovery of N169.175 million from the company, being the haulage fees it owed for the period 2017 to 2019.
Consequent upon series of arguments from both the petitioner and the respondents’ counsel, Justice Akinrotoye ruled in favour of the state government, dismissing the petition filed by Nigerian Breweries that it lacked merit.
However, the Company Secretary, Nigerian Breweries , Uaboi Agbebaku in a statement to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday said, “The attention of Nigerian Breweries has been drawn to recent publications in the media on the above subject.
“The Company hereby confirms that an Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure on the 27th of January, 2021 gave a judgment against the Company and in favour of the Ondo State Government in respect of haulage fees assessed at N169 million.
“In response to the court ruling, the Company has filed a Notice of Appeal against the said judgment as well as an application for stay of execution of the judgment pending the appeal.
“The Company does not engage in haulage business and does not own or operate any haulage truck whether in Ondo State or anywhere else.
“Haulage fees are by law, paid by companies in the haulage business. Independent third parties who are in the haulage business are wholly responsible for moving the Company’s products across the country and have always been responsible for the payment of haulage fees to the respective authorities.
“Although the Government had initially taken a self-help approach to seal the Depot on the 28th of January, 2021, the Government subsequently re-opened the Depot on the 2nd of February, 2021 following petitions by the Company’s lawyers on the unorthodox steps initially taken to seal the Depot.
“The Company is committed to seeing the matter through to its logical conclusion by the courts with a view to preserving its legal rights.
“The Ondo State Government is our highly regarded stakeholder and partner in progress. As a responsible and law abiding corporate citizen, the Company takes the issue of compliance seriously and will continue to honour all legitimate statutory payment obligations applicable to it.”
