MultiChoice is facing shut-down in Nigeria after the country’s tax authority, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), asked lenders to freeze the company’s local bank accounts over $4.4 billion tax evasion claims.
The decision came after MultiChoice refused to grant access to its servers for an audit, breaching all agreements with tax authorities by refusing to communicate and blocking access to their records.
However, the company says it has not received formal notification about the tax matter.
Previously, MTN Group was also caught in the same spat with the Nigerian Government, which later withdrew a $2 billion tax demand against, saying it had referred the case to the tax and customs authorities.
The firm was accused of non-payment of taxes relating to the import of equipment and payments to foreign suppliers from 2007 to 2017, a case that has continued to discourage foreign investors from the country.
In 2020, MultiChoice had a total subscriber base of 20.1 million viewers throughout Africa, one of the fastest-growing pay-TV operators globally.
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