• Govt charge of N1.2 bn tax outrageous –MTN
From Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
The Kogi State government has explained why it shut down the services of the MTN Nigeria Communications Limited in parts of the state, stating that the network provider had flagrantly refused to comply with the rules and regulations guiding it’s operations in the state.
The shutdown of MTN which is the major service provider in the state has paralyzed the socio-economic activities while citizens and subscribers have been groaning as businesses count their loses running into millions of naira.
Chairman of Kogi State Revenue Service, Sule Enehe, represented by Mrs Hassana Salawu and the Director General of Kogi State Utility Infrastructure Management and Compliant Agency, Taofeek Isah, who addressed journalists, said MTN refused to meet its obligations to the state.
Taofeek Isah said the current face-off has to do with the regularisation obligation of fibre-optic which the government claimed that MTN refused to comply with, noting that while MTN is claiming to have 40 fibre-optic cables in the state while the government said they the firm has 199 fibre-optic cables which they are obligated to pay for.
The government maintained that after several meetings with the service provider, the firm still refused to do the needful and rather preferred to dilly-dally with the state government.
The state government, which refused to disclose the amount owed by MTN to the state in spite of several questions from journalists, said that shutting down the services of the network was its last resort to enforce compliance and therefore urged citizens to switch to other network providers.
With MTN services shutdown, it was gathered that the level of kidnapping and other forms of insecurity have increased while hospitals and medical facilities that rely on the service provider are also worst hit.
When contacted, a reliable source close to MTN office that spoke on condition of anonymity, said the state government was being economical with the truth and challenged it to mention the area that the network provider failed to comply.
He said the state government without consideration just increased its annual tax to over N1.2 billion with over 70 percent hiding under some dubious means, which, he said they could not provide convincing data to support.
On the claim of the state government that MTN has 199 optic-fibres instead of the 40 stated it operates, the source said the right of way of these optic-fibres was the major dispute stressing that the state government wants to claim optic-fibres that are placed on Trunk A road which is clearly under the control of the federal government.
He said following the state government option would amount to double payment of tax by MTN to the federal and state governments on the same object.