The House of Representatives has directed the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to submit to it the receipts of the tax payments made by MTN for 2007 and between 2010 and 2017.
The request by the legislatures follows observations during interactions with the agency on Wednesday, in which it was revealed that MTN is indebted to the tune of N451 billion.
The request was made by the House of Representative Committee on Finance during an interactive session with the Chairman of FIRS, Mr Muhammed Nami, according to ChannelsTV.
Nami, however, told the committee that MTN is already gradually paying the taxes owed government in instalments.
Nami further disclosed that the sum of N10.104 trillion revenue is expected to be realized in the 2022 fiscal year, with the formal capturing of Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms into the country’s tax net.
The FIRS boss who was speaking during the interactive session on the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), also unveiled plans for the introduction of Road Tax.
He said that the bill which will include the use of electronic means to collect taxes from road users to enhance revenue drive will be sent to the National Assembly for consideration and passage.
He said, “On the issue of a digital economy, the FIRS has a department called International Tax Department which is handling such cases.
“Twitter and others are already registering with us. That is why in our revenue projections, we are raising it from N5 trillion in 2021 to N10 trillion in 2022. We expect the impact of those registrations to take effect.”
What you should know
- This is not the first time that the mobile telecommunication giant is faced with some form of controversy. MTN in 2015, was handed down a $5.2 billion fine by the Federal Government through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for not meeting the deadline for disconnecting Subscribers Identification Modules (SIM) with improper registration.
- The telecoms firm finally paid a total of N330 billion fine in 2019 after down revision of the fine due to the intervention of the South African government and other stakeholders.
- The Federal Government has also moved to improve its tax collection in the face of inadequate revenue which has been considered quite low in comparison to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
