Etisalat, Glo, Airtel owe FG billions of naira in levies – NITDA DG

 

 Etisalat, Globacom and Airtel Nigeria Limited may be owing the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) millions of naira as part of their mandatory levies from their annual profits, a House of Representatives panel heard yesterday.
Speaking during a session with the ad-hoc committee investigating the activities of telecoms operators and vendors, the Director General of the agency, Dr Isa Ibrahim Pantami, said the amount was part of the National Information Technology Development Fund (NITDEV).
The Act establishing NITDA provides that all telecoms companies operating in the country shall pay one percent of their annual profits as levy for NITDEV.
Only MTN has been regular in paying the levy. The company paid N19 billion since the inception of the fund in 2007, while Globacom paid only N1.3bn for 2011, 2012 and 2015, Pantami said.
Airtel paid N677.7 million for 2007, 2008 and 2015 and declared losses in other years, while Etisalat, which came into Nigeria in 2008 has not paid anything since then, claiming losses, Pantami said.
But the committee, chaired by Rep Ahmed Abu (APC, Niger) said it would recover all the amount being owed by the telecoms operators and others.
The committee said companies such as Ericson, Alcatel, Siemens, among others, which are supposed to pay, were not captured in the NITDA database.
“There’s going to be a recovery, and we’ll make sure that the amount is recovered whether he (FIRS chairman) likes it or not,” the lawmaker said.


POSTED BY:OPUOMONI PRIYE
DATE:07/06/2017