The Cameron government is on a fining spree on erring domestic telecoms in the country. The mobile telecom companies – Orange and MTN Cameroon – have to pay a fine of over US$160 million for failing to pay taxes on games and gambling services. The fine was imposed by the Central African country as a measure to purge the unsavory practices among the telecom giants. The anti-corruption body has imposed a total fine of US$ 283 million on telecom giants. The other players like Camtel and Viettel are also in the net. The individual share of penalties to be paid is still not clear and will become clear in the coming days since the companies have refused to divulge the details and more information is being sought from the government agency. The main charge against the MTN and Orange was that they were not paying taxes on their money transfer system, known as Mobile Money. It may be noted that MTN Nigeria had also come under cloud in Nigeria for failing to disconnect users with unregistered SIM cards. The Nigerian government has imposed a fine of US$ 3.9 billion, which is being contested by the MTN. Unregistered SIM is a growing security menace in Nigeria since militant organizations like Boko Haram uses it for subversive activities.
