During a meeting at the Nigerian House of Representatives, Saidu Abdullahi announced to the congregation that there was a motive by a foreign entity to purchase the MultiChoice group and its subsidiaries in a mandatory takeover.
The issue with this transaction to the Nigerian Government is the fact that MultiChoice Nigeria has an outstanding tax debt, making the sale of the company result in a loss in taxes for Nigeria if actions to recover the funds are not made immediately.
In an attempt to secure the MultiChoice outstanding tax debt, the Nigerian House of Representatives has taken the step forward to warn the potential buyer about the outstanding tax debt, which may have been omitted from the company’s financial report.
To further investigate this matter, a committee on finance by the Nigerian House of Representatives has been deployed to crosscheck the MultiChoice tax non-remittance, adopting the motion “Need to investigate the alleged unremitted ₦1.8 trillion and $342 million tax revenues owed the Federation by MultiChoice”.
According to Saidu Abdulahi, the Pay-TV Company is accused of concealing important tax information that was exposed from the company’s submission in South Africa. This act ignites the Nigerian House of Representatives’ right to probe MultiChoice based on Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution.
To get the exact figure owed by the Pay-TV Company in tax debt, the FIRS made contact with a consultant to audit the outstanding debt obligations of the MultiChoice Group and subsidiaries operating in Nigeria spanning from 2011 to 2020.
According to the in-depth audit by the consultant, the MultiChoice group is said to owe ₦1.8 trillion while the Nigerian subsidiaries owe $342 million from the timeframe specified.