BY FESTUS AHON
UGHELLI— CHAIRMAN Delta State Board of Internal Revenue, Mr Joel Onovwakpo-Thomas, has stressed the need for prompt payment of taxes. He sued for the assistance of the Nigeria Police in his effort to ensure that the payment of taxes was complied with in the state.

Onovwakpo in a chat  with newsmen, weekend, said the board has the duty of ensuring that organisations and individuals pay their taxes as stipulated by law.

Reiterating that the payment of taxes would engender development of the state in terms of provision of necessary facilities and other needs that were vital to the society, he decried that some persons and organisations deliberately evade the payment of taxes.

According to him, such persons and organisation were disobeying the laws on payment of taxes, explaining that this was why they “partnered with the Police because of the role it plays in the enforcement of law in the country.”

He insisted that the tax office in the state has not gone outside the law to tax people at random, lamenting “why people will want to deliberately not want to pay tax, knowing that it is for the benefit of everyone within the society.

“It is on the basis of these deliberate defaulters that the Board considered it important to get the Police in partnership for the matter to be addressed rightly. The Police have been very effective in the maintenance of law and order in the country and there is no way the Board can possibly do without them.”