The Tax Appeal Tribunal has ruled that mobile telecom giant, MTN is to pay Shs20 billion to Uganda Revenue Authority in the Shs360 tax row.
URA claimed that MTN and a host of other companies had under declared their revenue and hence paying less tax to the tax authority. URA based their claims on the whistleblower who alleged that the communication giant was not declaring all the revenue in order to evade the taxes.
Contrary to the allegations made that the tax evasion was Shs360, URA carried out an audit and discovered that MTN Uganda had alleged not paid VAT amounting to 20,053,441,670 for the period 2014-2017.
However, a senior executive at MTN-Uganda in a telephone interview with Eagle Online said they intend to appeal against the Shs20 billion as well because the allegations against them were untrue.
“From the word go, we said were clean because we have never hidden anything or under declared the revenues but this was a clear mudslinging by some individuals whose aim we couldn’t tell but like fate would be, it was Shs360 billion but now the Tax Appeal Tribunal has brought it o Shs20 billion to which we shall appeal because we are clean” The MTN executive said on condition of anonymity.
Suing under MTN Sea Shared Services Ltd (MTN SSS), MTN denies liability to pay taxes amounting to $89.6 million and another $528,000, which according to URA, accrued from under-declaration of earnings on the lucrative Mobile Money, and information technology services provided to MTN Uganda between December 2015 and February 2016 by its mother company MTN Sea Shared Services (MTN SSS) Ltd.
