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Telcos failed to pay taxes on gambling and gaming services, CONAC says; other telcos have also received fines.
Cameroon’s anti-corruption body has levied fines worth US$160 million (€147 million) on Orange and MTN for failing to pay taxes on gambling and gaming services, it emerged this week.
The details came to light in a report published by Cameroon’s National Anticorruption Commission, or CONAC, Reuters reported on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear how much of the sum is payable by each telco.
Orange and MTN are not the only telecoms operators in the country facing censure. Their punishments came as part of a wider investigation into the sector which led CONAC to impose fines totalling $283 million.
Camtel and Viettel, amongst other companies, were also found to be in breach of the rules, Reuters said.
The newswire added that MTN and Orange have also been accused of not paying taxes on their mobile money services. It did not make it clear whether or not that would result in a separate penalty.
$160 million, however it is split, is a sizeable sum, but one that perhaps pales into insignificance for MTN, coming in the wake of the telco’s problems in Nigeria.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) hit MTN’s local unit with a fine worth US$5.2 billion (€4.7 billion) in late October for its failure to disconnect millions of unregistered SIM cards in accordance with the regulator’s timetable.
The sum was later reduced to $3.9 billion, but a legal challenge from MTN is ongoing.
