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Court picks January 2020 for hearing in MTN, Nigerian government $2bn tax dispute

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$8.1BN SUIT: MTN seeks out of court settlement

MTN Nigeria is not out of troubled water yet as a Federal High Court in Lagos has picked January 30, 2020 and January 31, 2020 for hearing in the $2 billion back tax dispute between the Attorney General of the federation, Abubakar Malami and MTN Nigeria.

Malami had alleged in September 2018 that MTN owed Nigerian Government $2 billion in back taxes relating to the importation of equipment and payments of foreign suppliers between 2007 and 2017.

MTN Nigeria had denied the claim and insisted the AGF over-stepped its power in the claim.

Read also: Despite improved DBI ranking, Nigeria remains a harsh terrain for SMEs, startups

Consequently, lawyers for the government on Tuesday submitted a case against MTN to the court, insisting the AGF has the power to levy charge and requested a hearing date for late January to continue the proceedings.

The lawyers had in June 2019 asked the court to adjourn the case to October to give them time to prepare their case.

MTN Nigeria was in May 2019 listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as part of negotiated resolve for fine levied against the telecom company by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for not disconnecting unregistered SIM cards in its network and paid the sum of N330 billion as fine to the regulator.

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