The FIRS has appointed some commercial banks as agents to recover the sum of N1.8 trillion from the accounts of Messrs MultiChoice Nigeria Limited (MCN) and MultiChoice Africa (MCA), the Executive Chairman, Muhammad Nami disclosed in a statement.
The decision to appoint the banks as agents and to freeze the accounts was as a result of the Muktichoice’s refusal to give FIRS access to its servers for audit.
The companies according to sources, persistently breached all agreements and undertakings with the Service, and would not promptly respond to correspondences.
It was also learnt that Multichoice lacks data integrity and are not transparent as they continually deny FIRS access to their records and has refused to give FIRS accurate information on the number of its subscribers and income, leading under remittance.
The statement added that the group’s performance does not reflect in its tax obligations and compliance level in Nigeria. The level of non-compliance by Multi-Choice Africa (MCA), is low and has never paid Value Added Tax (VAT) since its inception, even though Nigeria contributes 34% of total revenue for the Multi-Choice group, followed by Kenya with 11% and Zambia with 10%. The rest of Africa where they have presence accounts for 45% of the group’s total revenue.
Information currently at the disposal of FIRS has revealed a tax liability for relevant years of assessment for ₦1,822,923,909,313.94 (One trillion, eight hundred and twenty-two billion, nine hundred and twenty-three million, nine hundred and nine thousand, three hundred and thirteen naira, ninety-four kobo only) and $342,531,206 (Three hundred and forty-two million, five hundred and thirty-one thousand, two hundred and six dollars only).
FIRS powers in Section 49 of the Companies Income Tax Act Cap C21 LFN 2004 as amended, Section 41 of the Value Added Tax Act Cap V1 LFN 2004 as amended and Section 31 of the FIRS (Establishment) Act No. 13 of 2007 has powers to collect taxes.
The statement addaed that all bankers to MCA & MCN in Nigeria have been appointed as Collecting Agents for the full recovery of the aforesaid tax debt.
The affected banks are required to sweep balances in each of the above-mentioned entities’ accounts and pay the same in full or part settlement of the companies’ respective tax debts until full recovery.