House of Representatives, yesterday, said it would probe alleged non-remittance of tax revenues amounting to N1.8 trillion and $342 million to the Federal Government by Multichoice.
The House said the investigation became necessary following suppression of information discovered from the submissions in the company’s home country, South Africa.
This followed the adoption of a motion moved by Sa’idu Abdullahi at the plenary.
Presenting the motion, Abdullahi said Multichoice, a prominent multinational corporation operating in Nigeria, had been accused of non-remittance of tax revenues due to the Federal Government, as evidenced by the suppression of information.
Abdullahi said: “The Federal Inland Revenue Service had engaged a consultant in 2021 under a whistle-blowing contract to carry out an audit of the tax obligations of Multichoice Nigeria and MultiChoice Africa with a view to ascertaining the company’s tax indebtedness to the country. Their findings led to a back audit and investigation carried out by the FIRS from 2011 to 2020.”
“Previous attempts by FIRS to recover the unpaid taxes through legal means, including court proceedings and the subsequent resolution to settle out of the court by both parties, have not yielded the desired result.
“The systems audit and investigation revealed enormous indebtedness to the tune of over N1.8 trillion in back total taxes for MultiChoice Nigeria, and $342 million in Value-added tax, for MultiChoice Africa that had never paid any taxes since they started business operations in Nigeria. Both amounts were levied upon the Multichoice Group by the FIRS.”
The House adopted the motion and cautioned potential buyers of Multichoice Nigeria, Multichoice Africa or other subsidiaries of the Multichoice Group operating in Nigeria to be aware of the alleged outstanding indebtedness which may have been covered in their papers.
