VAT: Appeal Court Orders Rivers, Lagos To Suspend Collection

Rivers and Lagos States have been ordered by the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, to maintain the status quo on the collection of Value Added Tax, VAT, pending the determination of an appeal that was lodged before it by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS.

The court gave the order on Friday and maintained that the order was to preserve the ‘Res’ (subject matter) of the appeal before it.

More specifically, it ordered all the parties that have subjected themselves before it to “refrain from taking any action to give effect to the judgment of the Rivers State High Court”, which gave Rivers State Government the right to collect VAT revenue, instead of the FIRS.

Justice Haruna Tsammani led a three-man panel of Justices of the appellate court to give the order after it deferred the hearing of an application Lagos State filed to be joined as an interested party in the matter, till September 16.

The Attorney-General of Lagos State, Moyosore Onibanjo, SAN, had kicked against the issuance of an order for the maintenance of the status quo, he maintained that such an order could not be binding on it, since it was yet to be joined as a party in the appeal by FIRS.