Under-reporting pay-TV scandal in Colombia
February 8, 2016
By Chris Forrester
The under-reporting of pay-TV subscriptions is far from a new phenomenon, but now the head of Colombia’s tax-evasion officials reckon that cable TV operators in the country are responsible for $50.6 million in unpaid taxes due to their understating of revenues.
The allegations directly concern some 3.2 million pay-TV subscribers in the country, and the Comptroller General’s office in Colombia says the differences come about following an analysis of the numbers reported by the Communications Regulation Commission and Colombia’s National Television Authority (ANTV).
The CG explained that “one of the causes of underreporting is the tax asymmetry between telecommunications services” and pay-TV operators along with a “lack of convergent regulation” in the sectors. The money raised by the ANTV is used for the maintenance and financing of public TV in Colombia and its educational and cultural contents, explains the official statement.