…To probe MultiChoice over alleged N1.8tr, $342m tax fraud
The House of Representatives, has called on the President Bola Tinubu-led administration to revisit all abandoned projects spread across the country and complete them for the use of Nigerians.
The lower legislative chamber, during yesterday’s plenary, lamented the number of infrastructural projects left uncompleted by successive administrations.
Leading the debate on the Motion: ‘Need to access and fix abandoned Federal Government projects across the country’, the sponsor of the Bill and member representing Ijebu-North/Ijebu-East/Ogun Waterside, Joseph Adegbesan, described as disappointing the abandonment of projects in the country. Adegbesan said, “Available statistics have shown that over 60,000 projects are abandoned in Nigeria, thereby obstructing citizens from utilising their tax proceeds and natural resources, with the total value of these projects reaching trillions of Naira”.
The lawmaker told his colleagues that the projects were initiated and designed to improve the standard of living of Nigerians through electrification, power improvement, provision of potable water, qualitative education, healthcare facilities, construction of roads and bridges. According to the lawmaker, “Successive administrations have been ignoring these projects on the premise that it was not initiated by their government or not within their policy direction, disregarding their importance to Nigerians and taxpayers’ money spent”.
Consequently, the House mandated its Committee on Works to review all abandoned FG projects across the country including the “scope of work, commencement date, contract value, the amount spent, and stage of work through Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), with a workable plan to effectively complete the projects”.
The committee has four weeks to complete its assignment and report back to the House for further legislative action.
Similarly, the House yesterday mandated its Committee on Finance to investigate the alleged non-remittance of tax revenue by a South African entertainment company, MultiChoice Group. The resolution of the House was a sequel to the adoption of a Motion, titled: “Need to investigate the alleged unremitted N1.8tn and $342m tax revenues owed the Federation by Multichoice Group.”
Leading the debate on the general principles of the Motion, the sponsor and member representing Bida/Gbako/Katcha Federal Constituency, Niger State, Sa’idu Abdullahi, who said the power of the House to probe Multichoice is derived from Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitutions (as amended), noted that “MultiChoice, a prominent multinational corporation operating in Nigeria, has been accused of non-remittance of tax revenues due to the Federation, as evidenced by the suppression of information discovered from the submissions in their home country”.
This is just as the House agreed that there is a need to thoroughly investigate the allegations and take appropriate action to safeguard the interests of Nigerians. Consequently, the House mandated its Committee on Finance to investigate the non-remittance of tax revenues by the company “with a focus on the suppression of information discovered from their submissions in their home country and report back within four weeks for further legislative action”.
The House further cautioned potential buyers of MultiChoice Nigeria, MultiChoice Africa and other subsidiaries of MultiChoice Group operating in Nigeria “to be aware of the alleged outstanding indebtedness which may have been covered in their papers”.
