By Adedapo Adesanya
The House of Representatives has issued a warning which include arrests and fines to MTN and 14 other telecommunication companies operating in Nigeria over the failure of their Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) to appear before the house committee on finance.
The Chairman of the Committee, Mr James Faleke, raised the motion following observations that there was a revenue leakage of over $30 billion by these companies following the declaration of huge profits and not remitting the appropriate taxes.
Mr Faleke said that the reason why the CEOs were called to appear before the House was to investigate the matter to appropriately understand why and to ensure that that the nation’s tax regime remained fair and competitive.
“The Committee of Finance and Banking and Currency, in furtherance of its obligations as directed by the House, issued letters of invitation to various corporations to submit documents of their full compliance with the laws of the federation.
“The House is amazed that some of these corporations, particularly telecoms operators under the aegis of Incorporated Trustees of Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, upon the receipt of the letters of invitation, chose instead to file cases in the court.
“The House notes that a judgment in favour of the National Assembly was delivered on March 13, 2020, by Her Lordship, B.F.M. Nyako J, which reiterated that ‘the National Assembly is empowered by sections 88 and 89 of the constitution to invite any persons for investigative purposes’.
“However, the telecoms operators under the aegis of Incorporated Trustees of Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria have contested the powers of the National Assembly, and have filed an Appeal, seeking an injunction to restrain the National Assembly from investigating their business, operations and policies, summoning them, requesting any documents or books from them, conducting any investigative hearing or meetings against [them], making oversight visits to their offices or premises for the purposes of investigating or demanding information,” the lawmaker informed his colleagues.
Commenting on the matter, Speaker of the lower chamber of the parliament, Mr Femi Gbadabiamila, said that these telecom companies are not above the law and must honour the parliament of the country in which they operate.
”We will not seat and accept the parliament handicapped. If MTN was to be summoned by the South Africa parliament, it will hurriedly honour the invitation.
“The consequence of their action is arrest and fine, the National Assembly has such powers and we will impose if they refuse to appear.
“Let it be clear that any one who turns against the parliament will have himself to blame, on this backdrop we will once again extend invitation to them, if they refuse to respond after seven days we will then be forced to impose our powers, and call for arrest and they will also be fined,” he said.
Modupe Gbadeyanka