TeliaSonera Issued 15-day Ultimatum to Pay Capital Gain Tax

Nepal’s Large Taxpayer Office has issued a 15 day ultimatum to telecom company TeliaSonera to pay the capital gain tax after its transaction of Ncell with Axiata.

In December 2015, Ncell changed hands from TeliaSonera to Axiata. TeliaSonera, an European telecommunication provider sold its shares worth USD 1.03 billion to the Malaysia-based Asian telecommunication giant.

The government had said that 25 percent of the profit made from the sale of Ncell should be deposited as capital gains tax. But TeliaSonera is yet to make the payment. Out of the 25 percent, 10 percent should be paid by the seller (TeliaSonera) while 15 percent should be paid by company that was sold (Ncell).

TeliaSonera had been given a deadline of January 2, 2018 to pay the capital gain tax of Rs. 65.40 billion including interest and fines. But it has failed to do so.

So the office has issued a public notice to TeliaSonera’s head office in Sweden writing to them about the missed deadline. The notice also states that the office had written to TeliaSonera about the payment due on June 30, 2017 and they not had paid the tax due despite of it. The notice has instructed the company to pay the amount within the next 15 days.

Following this, the notice warns that it will be “compelled to expedite tax collection and recovery actions by applying all or any of the needful procedures prescribed in the Income Tax Act 20158, Section 104 to 111“.

On the other hand, Ncell has already paid its 15 percent which amounts to Rs. 23.57 billion in two installments as tax on the profit generated through sale of Ncell.