How MTN Is Evading Tax *Also Defrauding Subscribers Of Billions
Apart from ripping off the generality of Nigerians through its poor network services, fake promotions and bogus jamboree, the MTN is allegedly ripping off the Federal Government to the tune of billions of naira through evading tax.
Those in the know claimed that the company has two account systems: one for its official and the other for its parent company in South-Africa. It was gathered that whatever they pay their staff is half of what is in their original books while the other half is laundered to South-Africa, in active connivance with some unscrupulous Nigerians who help to perpetrate the fraud.
Another means is through the fake promos which they organise regularly; one of such bogus promo called ‘Treasure Hunt’.
Many Nigerians, irrespective of the credit crunch and its implication on their pockets, have spent so much money playing the pool or gambling in the guise of a Treasure Hunt. The more pathetic aspect of the hunt is that the terms and conditions are not made public, making Nigerians to embark on a journey for the treasure blindfolded.
Many people participate in the fraud promo because of the tactics MTN uses to sweet talk them into spending N1,500 and some people even spend more than N10,000 daily replying to text messages urging them to be part of the fraud called promo without winning a dime. This has turned many unsuspecting Nigerians into gamblers.
Another crooked way the company is using to steal money from members of the public is by charging them for unsolicited caller tune ring back tones, on which MTN always deducts N50 without the consent of their subscribers. This means that if N50 is deducted from one million subscribers it will amount to N50m and in 30 days it amount to N1.5 trillion.
Recently the Governor of Lagos State, Raji Fashola lamented that corporate organizations should stop using taxes payable to the government to fund CSR projects, pointing out that organizations that engaged in such are stealing from the government because at the end of the day they are filing false tax returns.