MULTICHOICE’S Nigerian business said yesterday it expected a $4.4 billion (R66.4bn) tax dispute to be resolved “very soon”, as the Nigerian tax authorities began a forensic audit under a settlement with the South African pay-TV group.
Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) froze the company’s accounts in June and served MultiChoice Group with a 1.8 trillion naira (R65.7bn) tax claim for its Nigeria operation and a $342m claim for value-added taxes.
South Africa’s MultiChoice, spun off in 2019 from Naspers, makes a third of its revenues elsewhere on the continent, with Nigeria its biggest market outside its home market.
MultiChoice, which had appealed to a tax tribunal and declined to grant the FIRS access to its servers in the past, said in a statement it has agreed to a settlement, which paved the way for a forensic audit to determine its tax liability.
“With the agreement and the resumption of the forensic systems audit, it is expected that the dispute will be resolved very soon,” MultiChoice said.
Nigeria, with one of the lowest tax-collection rates in the world, has been seeking to boost non-oil tax receipts to support its fragile economy and cut its budget deficit. –
REUTERS