By Titilope Joseph 

LAGOS – MultiChoice Africa Holdings (MAH), the parent company of MultiChoice Nigeria, has stat­ed its position over the ruling of the Tax Appeal Tribunal (TAT) which dismissed its appeal against the $342 million Value Added Tax (VAT) bill slapped on it by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

The company in a statement on Wednesday said it rejected the verdict of the Tax Appeal Tribunal (TAT), adding that the TAT ruling was based on tech­nicality rather than the merits of the case.

While making its position known, MAH also stated it will lodge an appeal against the rul­ing at the Federal High Court be­cause the TAT ruling was based on technicality rather than the merits of the case.

“MAH respectfullydisagrees with the ruling, which was based on a technicality rather than the merits of the case. Therefore, we will be lodging an appeal at the Federal High Court against the ruling.

“This tax appeal is a separate and distinct matter from the ap­peal launched by MultiChoice Nigeria (MCN), in which the TAT found in MCN’s favour last week, allowing it to proceed with that appeal,” the company stated.

It would be recalled that the Lagos zone of the Tax Appeal Tribunal (TAT) last Wednesday ruled that MultiChoice Nigeria has fulfilled the conditions re­quired for the hearing of its appeal against the N1.8 trillion tax bill slammed on it by the Federal Inland Revenue Ser­vice (FIRS).

MultiChoice had filed an ap­peal before TAT over perceived wrongful assessment spanning a 10-year period.

The tribunal Chairman, Prof. A.B. Ahmed, had on Au­gust 24 directed MultiChoice to make a statutory deposit of 50 percent of the alleged tax li­ability before the continuation of the appeal.

At the hearing of the matter last month, the FIRS objected to the continuation of the appeal on the ground that MultiChoice had failed to comply with the earlier directive of the tribunal.