JAYKAY RESPOND TO FASHOLA ON TAX ISSUES TOLD HIM TO CHECK RECORDS AND KEEP QUIET.

JAYKAY PHARMACY LTD. 

RESPONSE TO FASHOLA’S TAX INDICTMENT

JayKay Pharmacy Ltd is a private limited liability company. It is not involved in politics or political activities and has no wish to be so involved. Even though it is public knowledge that our former Managing Director, Mr. Jimi Agbaje is involved in the Lagos State governorship contest, we would not wish to be pulled into the partisan political space. We are a law abiding and responsible corporate citizen and we pay our taxes and are faithful to our legal and moral obligations.

In specific reference to our land use charges, which unfortunately have been made a subject of public controversy, we confirm as follows:

In 2007, our land use bill was N54,106.43 with a proviso for discounted payment of N45,990 based on early payment. We promptly made payment before February 20, 2007 and government accepted the discounted amount.

In 2008, the Lagos State Government FAILED to send a demand notice and we were unaware of what the bill was. By 2009, to our surprise, a bill of N50,864.82 was received plus purported arrears of N190,190.18. Given that our 2007 payment was N45,990.46, it was inexplicable how arrears for a single year could be N190,190.18 and we duly contested that bill.

Again in 2010, Lagos State Government NEGLECTED to send a demand notice only to return in 2011, this time with a shocking and outrageous bill of N210,622.50 and spurious arrears of N1,840,657.50!

We took up these unjustifiable and unreasonable “arrears” with the Lagos State Government and after many efforts discovered that the said arrears were arbitrary “penalties”, a pattern of capricious behavior that has persisted to date in spite of our persistent and unrelenting complaints and consultations with the relevant officials. We were eventually advised to write a letter to the Honourable Commissioner for Finance for waiver of these “penalties”. We duly wrote to the Commissioner on September 6, 2013.

In demonstration of our good faith, we then made payments of the substantive use charges less arbitrary penalties to the tune of N500,000.00 and N376,475.00 totaling N876,475.00 in 2013 which was duly acknowledged by the State Government; N222,294.04 in 2014; and N326,603.08 and N221,294.04 in January 2015. This is in spite of the fact that our land use charges have strangely risen from N45,990.46 in 2007 to over N220,000 by 2015.It is also important to note that the ENTIRETY of the purported outstanding land use charge on N1,407,770.58 (not N1.6million claimed by Governor Fashola) are comprised exclusively of the so-called “penalties”! We have attached receipts of all the payments made since 2007.

We re-confirm that we wrote a letter to the Honourable Commissioner for Finance requesting waiver of these “penalties” since 2013 to which no response has yet being received to date.

We re-state that JayKay Pharmacy Ltd is a responsible and law abiding business concern.

Signed

JayKay Pharmacy Ltd.