As the success of vaccine roll out continues to help ease restrictions, companies in the transportation business are once again raising funds to expand to new markets.

Although India is still grappling with a deadly second wave of covid, one of its own is in the news for huge fundraising.

Temasek and an affiliate of Warburg Pincus are investing $500 million in Indian ride-hailing giant Ola, the Bangalore-headquartered startup said in a short statement Friday. Ola co-founder and chief executive Bhavish Aggarwal is also participating in the new investment, the startup said. TechCrunch has the story.

This is the first time SoftBank-backed Ola, which leads the market in India, has raised money since its Series J financing round two years ago, according to records on insight platform Tracxn. Ola said in a statement that the investment comes “ahead of IPO” — but didn’t elaborate. (The startup has since said it hasn’t finalized the timing of its IPO.)

Ola, Temasek and Warburg Pincus didn’t share how the new investment valued the ride-hailing startup, which competes with Uber in India. Ola was valued at under $5 billion in its previous financing round.

EV business Ola Electric, which spun out of Ola in 2019, is also in the market to raise money, TechCrunch reported earlier this week. The unicorn startup will soon start the production of its electric scooters, Aggarwal, who also oversees Ola Electric, said recently.

Mobility firms are among the worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic. But in recent months, they have started to pick up pace again as more Indian states relax lockdown restrictions.

Ola had about 32 million monthly active users on Android in India in June, up from about 26 million in May, according to mobile insight firm App Annie. Uber had about 22 million users in June on Android in India, up from 18 million in May.

“Over the last 12 months we’ve made our ride-hailing business more robust, resilient and efficient. With strong recovery post-lockdown and a shift in consumer preference away from public transportation, we are well positioned to capitalize on the various urban mobility needs of our customers. I welcome Warburg Pincus and Temasek to Ola and look forward to collaborating with them in our next phase of growth,” said Aggarwal in a statement.

Ola, which operates in over 100 cities in India and has amassed over a million driver partners on its platform, also expanded to several international markets including Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. in the past decade.

“We look forward to collaborating with Bhavish and the team in the next phase of Ola’s growth,” said Vishal Mahadevia, MD and head of India business at Warburg Pincus, in a statement.

The new round however coincides with Didi’s predicament. The China-based ride-hailing app, which over the years has been dominant in China, forcing Uber to sell its operation in China to Didi, was last week stopped by Chinese authorities from registering new customers, and its app was taken down from Chinese app store. That’s just a few days after it went public on the New York Stock Exchange.

Ola said the new round will be used to expand its operation. Having covered most of Indian cities, the aim is to increase its international market share, and China appears to be one of the target markets.

On Thursday, the federal government of Nigeria said it has begun moves to freeze members of Multichoice Group’s bank accounts over N1.8 trillion tax debt.

Members of Multichoice Group involved are, MultiChoice Nigeria Limited (MCN) And MultiChoice Africa (MCA). Nigeria’s tax authority, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said it had engaged banks as agents to freeze and recover N1.8 trillion from their respective accounts.

Abdullahi Ahmad, Director, Communications and Liaison Department of FIRS, made this known in Abuja on Thursday through a statement issued by the FIRS.

The tax body disclosed that the decision to appoint the banks as agents and freeze the accounts was due to MultiChoice’s continued refusal to grant FIRS access to their servers for audit.

According to the agency, the companies persistently breached all agreements and undertakings.

“The companies would not promptly respond to correspondence. They lacked data integrity and are not transparent as they continually deny FIRS access to their records.

“Particularly, MCN has avoided giving the FIRS accurate information on the number of its subscribers and income. The companies are involved in the under-remittance of taxes which necessitated a critical review of the tax-compliance level of the company.”

The FIRS added that the groups’ performance did not reflect their tax obligations and compliance level in the country.

The FIRS further noted that the level of non-compliance by Multichoice Africa (MCA), the parent Company MCN, was very alarming, adding that the parent company, which provided services to MCN, had not paid Value Added Tax (VAT) since its inception.

It said, “The issue with Tax collection in Nigeria, especially from foreign-based Companies conducting businesses in Nigeria and making massive profits, is frustrating and infuriating to the FIRS.

“Regrettably, Companies come into Nigeria just to infringe on our tax laws by indulging in tax evasion. There is no doubt that broadcasting, telecommunications, and the cable-satellite industries have changed the face of communication in Nigeria. However, when it comes to tax compliance, some companies are found wanting. They do with impunity in Nigeria what they dare not try in their countries of origin.”

The FIRS chairman stated that Nigeria contributed 34 per cent of total revenue for the Multi-Choice group.

According to him, other African countries they have a presence account for 45 per cent of the group’s total revenue.

“Information currently at the disposal of FIRS has revealed a tax liability for relevant years of assessment for ?1.8 trillion and $342.5 million. FIRS is powered in Section 49 of the Companies Income Tax Act Cap C21 LFN 2004 as amended, Section 41 of the Value Added Tax Act Cap V1 LFN 2004 as amended, and Section 31 of the FIRS (Establishment) Act No. 13 of 2007,” disclosed Mr Nami.

He added, “In this regard, the affected banks are required to sweep balances in each of the above-mentioned entities’ accounts and pay the same in full or part settlement of the companies’ respective tax debts until full recovery.

“This should be done before the execution of any transaction involving the companies or any of their subsidiaries. It is further requested that the FIRS be informed of any transactions before execution on the account, especially transfers of funds to any of their subsidiaries.

”It is important that Nigeria puts a stop to all tax frauds that had been going on for too long, and all companies must be held accountable and made to pay their fair share of relevant taxes including back duty taxes owed especially VAT.”

In response, MCN said it has not received any notification from the FIRS, and it is willing to cooperate with the tax body, yielding to its demand of transparency.

However, the development makes Multichoice the second South African company caught in the web of Nigeria’s tax authorities. Telecom giant, MTN was in 2018, caught in a $2 billion tax evasion scandal. Though the largest telco in Nigeria found a way out of the hook, the incident stirred the government’s eagerness to close tax loopholes, especially from multinational companies.

Nigeria’s tax to GDP ratio has seen a decade of drastic decline, reaching 6.1% as of July 2020, among the lowest in the world. FIRS’ move on Multichoice signals the government’s determination to close Nigeria’s tax loose ends, particularly in the face of an economic downturn orchestrated by the decline in oil revenue.