Sandeep Sen Published: 10:30 am Jan 10, 2021
New brand logo of Ncell - an Axiata company.
KATHMANDU, JANUARY 9
A handful of Nepali investors have made fortunes buying and selling Ncell shares using funds which appear to have flowed covertly to them via tax havens from the Malaysian telecom giant, Axiata, and Sweden’s Telia.
Some transactions by Nepali investors appear to challenge Nepal’s laws on foreign exchange controls, taxation, and foreign ownership.
An investigation by the Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal and Finance Uncovered, a British journalism organisation, has found that the primary Nepali beneficiaries from these deals appear to be leading businessman Upendra Mahato, his associate Niraj Govinda Shrestha, and businesswoman Bhavana Singh Shrestha, along with her company Sunivera Capital Venture.
KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 9): It would seem that Axiata Group Bhd s woes in Nepal did not end despite its 80%-owned Ncell Private Ltd already paying over US$420 million in capital gains taxes demanded by Nepalese authorities the last payment being the US$185 million “made under protest” last April and without prejudice to Ncell s and Axiata UK s position in an international arbitration against the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal .
According to a report by the Centre of Investigative Journalism-Nepal (CIJ-Nepal) and Finance Uncovered, a British journalism organisation, Axiata appears to have part-financed its Nepali local partner’s purchase of the remaining 20% stake in Ncell in 2016.
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