Relief, As FG Orders Multichoice To To Suspend Tarrif Hike

By Uche Mbah

National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Tuesday announced its order to the South African Digital Satelite marketing firm, Multichoice, owners of the digital Satelite Television, DSTv, and its terrestrial counterpart, GOTv, to suspend planned hike in tariffs, which they wanted to effect due to increase in Value Added Tax, VAT.

Many customers are already paying the new tariffs, which is expected to take effect July 1, 2020.

Briefing the ad-hoc committees in the National Assembly Tuesday in Abuja, the Acting Director-General of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Armstrong Idachaba, said he had to agree with the committee’s recommendation to suspend the tariffs.

Premium subscribers of DSTv, who have been paying N15, 800 were meant to pay N16, 200, an N600 increase, while Compact Plus subscribers will pay an increased tariffs from N10, 925 to N10,650. Those on Compact will have to pay N6,975 instead of N6,800.

Customers on Confam bouquet will now pay N4,615 against N4,500, while those on Yanga will from June 1 pay N2,565, against the N2,500 previously. Those on the Padi bouquet will pay an additional N50 to the N1,850 they were paying before.

All these have now been suspended by the NBC.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said it is the endeavor of the federal government to break the monopoly of Multichoice. many firms that tried to break the monopoly usually fizzle out after so much hype.

“Our amendments to the Broadcasting Act, will affect the break in the monopoly of MultiChoice. Amendments to Section 628 of the Broadcasting Act, is in our broad national interest,” Mohammed said.